Final Hope
by KHLostEmpress
Summary: Takeru has been living in France with his mother for the past four years. Now, he is finally returning back to the Digidestined. Light and Hope are finally reunited, but evil lurks just beneath. Pairings: Takari, Sorato, Kenyako, and some Koumi
1. Return

Author's Note: I am a huge Takari fan. So you can imagine how unsatisfied I was with the ending of Adventure 02. They left so many plot holes and plot lines just wide open by the end and to top it all off, they never say that Takeru and Hikari get together. Also, I really didn't like the fact that everyone in the world ended up with a Digimon. What's the point of being Digidestined then? So, you'll find that in my story, I'll be ignoring that part of the ending (along with some other things) and the whole epilogue thing that they did.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon._

* * *

Yamato Ishida watched with mild interest as his younger brother, Takeru Takaishi, finished getting ready for school. He had been more than just a little surprised when his father had called him about a week ago and asked if he could pick Takeru up at the airport since he was busy at work. Truth be told, he had been downright shocked. He had agreed, of course, and had driven to the airport immediately. He hadn't even known his brother was coming back to Japan. His younger brother had left with their mother to go live in France over four years ago, about a year after the younger generation had defeated MaloMyotismon. Less than a year later, Takeru had stopped talking to him, and, from what he had learned, the rest of the Digidestined as well. Yamato had tried to keep contacting him for a while, but eventually gave up when Takeru never replied. He had wanted to ask his mom if anything was wrong, but had never gotten around to it. His band had kept him busy through high school and living with Taichi had kept him busy for the last two years of college. As he had driven to the airport, he had started to blame himself again. He kept telling himself he should have kept trying to contact Takeru or that he should have talked to his mother. But the overdriving thought came that he just had to get to the airport and find his brother. His brother needed him, and he wasn't going to let him down.

He had arrived at the airport and had been shocked when he saw Takeru. His younger brother had certainly grown in the last four years that he had lived in France. Takeru had been sitting near the entrance, reading a book, when Yamato first caught sight of him in the airport. His blond hair was sticking out under another one of those hats (this year's model seemed to be a white beanie) Takeru seemed to love so much. He had looked so much more mature. He could tell that Takeru was tall and lean as he lounged in the chair reading. He was just so much _older_ than the thirteen year old he had left as.

Yamato had called out his name and Takeru had looked up at him in surprise. Then he had smiled and laughed and instantly was just once again, Takeru, his younger brother.

"Let me guess," Takeru had said. "Dad's busy with work."

"Yeah," Yamato said standing in front of him. He half-smiled. "How long have you been waiting?"

Takeru laughed. "I told myself when I got off the plane that I would give him two hours and then I would just find my own way home." He held up the book. "Why do you think I brought this? Anyway, I was just going to finish the chapter I was on and go ahead home, when you called my name."

He had stood then and Yamato had been surprised to find his brother just slightly taller than himself. They had embraced and Yamato asked, "What are you doing here?"

It had been Takeru's turn to look surprised. "Dad didn't tell you?"

Yamato sort of half-frowned, half-smiled. "I live with Taichi near the university now," he said. "I doubt Dad remembers I'm alive half the time."

Takeru laughed. "I guess you have a point," he said. "Well, I'm here to stay. It took me the better part of a year, but I managed to convince Mom to let me live with Dad for at least my last year in high school."

Yamato raised an eyebrow. "However did you manage that?"

"With a lot of persistence and a lot of hope," Takeru said.

They walked to the car and a sort of silence fell upon them. Yamato almost didn't know what to say to this new older version of his brother. When Takeru left, he had been a fun-loving happy boy, hopeful that all things would turn out right in the end. Yamato didn't know if he would find the same boy in the young man that sat beside him.

Eventually, it was Takeru who had broken the ice. "So, what's Taichi doing now these days? Still playing soccer?"

Yamato smiled at the thought of his roommate and best friend. "Yeah," he had answered. "He now coaches a kids' team for his job with Daisuke as his assistant. We're going to the local university, so we're not really that far away from everybody. Daisuke is going to the same high school we did, but Hikari and Ken are going to a more private school." Everyone had been kind of surprised that Ken didn't go to some elitist school somewhere, but he explained that he would rather be closer to the other Digidestined.

Yamato had glanced at Takeru when he mentioned Taichi's little sister, gauging his reaction. A slight grimace graced Takeru's face, but he didn't react beyond that. Yamato almost wanted to sigh. Takeru and Hikari had been best friends before Takeru had moved, sort of thrust together first as the youngest of the group, then as the older and more experienced ones of the group, and Yamato had begun to think that perhaps there was more to the two of them than just friendship, not that he had ever mentioned that to Taichi. He wasn't really sure what Taichi's reaction would be.

"Yeah," Takeru just said. "What about the rest of the Digidestined?"

"Well, Iori is going to attend the same school as Hikari and Ken now. Hard to imagine the kid's already in high school."

Takeru had smiled at that. "What about the rest of the girls? I know Mimi moved back to Odaiba not long after I went to France."

Yamato had nodded. "Right. She, Sora, and Miyako all live together near Taichi and me. They're all going to the same university as we are."

"And Jyou and Koushiro?"

"Jyou is finally starting his first year of medical school and Koushiro is going to some technology university in Tokyo. Both of them aren't too far away so we see them often."

"I guess everything's the way it should be," Takeru said. "So I hear Ken and Miyako are dating? And you and Sora?"

Yamato looked at his brother in surprise. "How did you know?"

Takeru laughed, but didn't answer. Instead he asked, "How's it going for you guys?"

Yamato smiled at the thought of his girlfriend. "It's really great," he said. "Taichi has been surprisingly supportive from the beginning. We go out on most weekends and we've planned our school and work schedules enough so that we can spend time together."

After Yamato finished talking, Takeru said, hesitantly, "So, I'm guessing that since you just found out I'm back, Hi—the others don't know I'm back either."

"Not unless you told them," Yamato said. He had noticed Takeru's slip, but chose not to comment on it.

"Could you not tell them?"

"Why not?"

Takeru smiled and laughed. "It might be fun to surprise them."

Yamato shook his head out of the memory. Now it was a week later, and he hadn't told anyone. Sora, not surprisingly, and Taichi, surprisingly, had known something was wrong, but neither had pressed him to tell them.

It was the first day of the school year and Yamato had come to see his brother off. He didn't know how Takeru had known, but he was in the same school as Hikari and Ken.

"You didn't have to come see me off," Takeru said as he pulled on his blazer.

"I know," Yamato said. "But I wanted to let you know that we've been planning a Digidestined get-together for this Saturday. You're going to come, right?"

There was a distinct pause as Takeru picked up his D-3 from his desk. Yamato watched as his hand gripped the D-3 tighter, but he turned to Yamato with a smile. "Of course," he said. "It's not like I have any other plans. I've only been in Odaiba for a week, remember?"

Yamato nodded, wondering what exactly had bothered Takeru in that moment. "We'll be going to the Digital World so that the Digimon will be included. You'll get to see Patamon."

A shadow smile came across Takeru's face. "Yeah," he said. He put his D-3 and his D-Terminal in his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He walked toward the front door with Yamato following. "Lock the door when you leave," Takeru said as he left.

Yamato sighed after his brother left. Something was clearly wrong with Takeru, but somehow, Yamato just couldn't ask what it was. He wanted to know why his brother had stopped contacting them and coming to the Digital World. Yamato noticed that when Takeru had put his D-3 and D-Terminal in his bag it had been out of habit, so Yamato knew that he had probably kept both items with him all the time when he was in France. With a D-3, Takeru could open his own gate to the Digital World anytime that he wanted. He knew from Patamon that Takeru hadn't been to the Digital World in the four years that he was gone, or at least Patamon hadn't seen him.

It didn't really make any sense. Yamato knew that Takeru adored Patamon. He, more than the rest of them, understood the feeling of being separated from your Digimon partner. He speculated again about Takeru's slip at the airport. Yamato knew that Takeru had almost said 'Hikari' instead of 'the others'. He wondered if something had happened before Takeru had left for France. Hikari never mentioned anything. Neither had Taichi, though that wasn't exactly surprising.

The Crest of Hope and the Crest of Light. They had always had some sort of special bond that none of the rest of them had quite understood. Yamato thought again about how he had begun to wonder if they were more than just friends.

Yamato shrugged. Takeru would tell him when he felt ready to. Yamato would just have to wait until then.


	2. School

Hikari Yagami stared out the window on the first day of her third and final year of high school. She sat in the back of the class, next to the window, with an empty seat beside her. She liked the fact that she was in the same school as Ken, but she was sort of sad that they were not in the same class as each other. She always felt better with someone from the Digidestined close by. Ever since Taichi moved away to live with Yamato near the university, she had always felt somewhat a little less safe. Less protected.

So with Ken just down the hall, she felt just more relief, though they didn't get to see each other very often. They ate lunch together sometimes, much to the jealousy of many of the other girls in school, but Hikari tried not to pay attention to the rumors that she and Ken were 'together'. Not only did she not even see Ken in that way, but Ken was together with Miyako. Iori also went to their school this year, but he was a first-year, so Hikari thought he would probably only eat lunch with them every once in awhile. Miyako had moved in with Mimi and Sora this year to go to the university, so she would be seeing her even less. It seemed the more they grew up, the further apart her friends got from each other. She supposed that it was inevitable. She knew they would always be friends, but she wished that they were all as close to each other as they had been as children.

Hikari let a sigh escape her lips. She was beginning to regret _not_ telling Daisuke that she was going to same school as Ken. It wasn't that she didn't _want_ to go to the same school as Daisuke, she just sort of forgot that she hadn't mentioned it to him until it was too late for the boy to take the entrance exam. But that was over two years ago now. She couldn't change the past, no matter how much she wanted to.

She thought briefly about what her classmates had been discussing when she had come into the classroom that morning. They had learned that there was going to be a transfer student from France in their year. Someone had apparently caught a glimpse of him yesterday after the opening ceremony and now all her friends in the class could do was rave about this blond haired 'hottie' as they had begun to call him. They said that he had been finishing his paperwork the day before and had missed the opening ceremony. When they found out that he would be in Hikari's class (she didn't even want to know how they had found out), those that weren't in her class were terribly jealous. None of them had been able to find out his name, much to their utter disappointment.

Hikari honestly did not really care as much. She remembered when she had heard that he was from France, she had thought that France was where Ta—no. She wouldn't let herself think about him. It was too painful to think about him. So instead, she thought about her D-3 in her bag. She sighed and decided that she would go and see Gatomon after school today. Her little catlike Digimon usually could make her feel better no matter what.

She heard the door open and knew it was probably the transfer student, but she didn't look over from her gazing out the window. She tried to guess what his name might be. Pierre? Gustave? Probably Pierre. All those French guys in the movies seemed to be called that. Nothing could have prepared her for the name that the teacher said.

"We have a new transfer student to our class," Mr. Fujiama said. Hikari could hear the chalk against the board as the teacher wrote the student's name on the board for them to see. "Class, I'd like you to welcome Takeru Takaishi from France."

Hikari whipped her head around as fast as Gatomon's **Lightning Paw**, her eyes going wide in disbelief. He stood there, tall and lean, his blond hair characteristically unkempt. His clear blue eyes were staring straight at her and he was smiling. He was older, different, but still, it was him. Takeru.

"There is a seat open by Miss Yagami there," Mr. Fujiama was saying, but it was just like background music to Hikari. Then he was walking towards her. He sat down next to her and smiled. She just sat there, her mouth gaping open like some fish on a wall.

"Together again," he said, and Hikari was taken back to over six years ago when he had arrived in her fifth grade class, just like this. It was the same thing he had said then.

"Just like old times," she found herself saying to him now, repeating her own response from back then. She faced forward again, determined to ignore him as he had done to her for the past few years. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see her friends staring at her in curiosity. Clearly they could tell that she knew Takeru, and some of them even had jealously plastered in their eyes.

The first half of the day was a blur to Hikari. She was glad that it was the first day, because she knew that she wasn't really listening to anything her teachers were telling her. She tried to pretend that Takeru wasn't there, but it was extremely hard. All that went through her mind were the hurt feelings of not only herself, but of Patamon.

Finally lunch time arrived and she saw out of the corner of her eye that Takeru was standing up. Hikari was still rooted to her chair. He stood next to her and she thought that he was going to say something, but instead she heard Ken's voice. "Takeru? Takeru! What are you doing here?"

Hikari could tell that he looked away from her to talk to Ken. "I'm living with my dad for at least the next year. I convinced my mom to let me come back to Japan."

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" Ken asked.

"I actually didn't know that you didn't know," Takeru said, laughing. His laughter brought so many memories back to Hikari. "I thought my dad would tell Yamato and that Yamato would tell the rest of you guys, but I guess I forgot how forgetful my dad could be. When Yamato came to get me at the airport last week, I found out that you guys had no idea I was coming." He laughed again. "Then I thought that it might be more fun just to surprise everyone."

Ken laughed with him. "Well, you certainly surprised me," he said. "Let's have lunch together. I'll go find Iori, and Hikari can show you the usual place. Right, Hikari? Hikari?"

Hikari realized she hadn't said anything. She looked up at Ken. "Um…right." Ken frowned at her, but still left.

Then it was just them again. Hikari was sort of surprised that her friends didn't descend upon her to ask about Takeru. Hikari grabbed her bag and was about to stand up, when she heard Takeru speak. "I'm sorry," he said.

Hikari paused. The way he had said it, she knew he was talking about everything. Leaving them, not coming to the Digiworld, leaving Patamon, not staying in contact. Everything that she was mad at him for. She also knew that he probably had a reason for it. Perhaps it wasn't a good reason, but it would be a reason nonetheless. The Takeru she knew wouldn't do something without a reason. She finally looked up at him. He had a shadow of a smile on his face, but those clear blue eyes were full of hope, just like she remembered them always being.

She felt her anger slip away as she stared into those eyes. "Just why?" she asked.

Takeru sighed, but then he smiled at her, clearly knowing that he was forgiven. "Can we talk about it later? It's kind of a long story, and Ken and Iori are probably waiting for us. I promise I'll tell you."

Hikari nodded, practically feeling herself fill with light again, just by forgiving and being near Takeru. She just needed to know why he left, but she knew that she was glad he was back. _What is Light without Hope_, she thought to herself. She stood up and realized for the first time just how much Takeru had grown. The top of her head didn't even reach his shoulders. When she looked up at him, he smiled as if in a private joke. "It's been a long time," he said.

"You've gotten taller," Hikari replied, saying the first thing that popped into her head. She looked down and blushed as he laughed softly. She smiled at him, on the verge of laughter herself. "Come on," she said. "Let's go eat lunch."

* * *

Takeru couldn't believe how much everything was different and yet, somehow, nothing had changed. As he had stood in the front of the classroom that morning, all he could think about was how nervous he was to see all the Digidestined again, especially Hikari. They had been best friends when he had left, and he had basically just stopped talking to her not even a year after leaving. He couldn't believe it as the teacher had introduced him to the class and the beautiful girl by the window had whipped her head around. His heart almost stopped when he recognized Hikari. Her hair was certainly longer than he remembered as it now cascaded half-way down her back. But her eyes were the same. Those same warm cinnamon eyes that reflected the light within her. All he could think to do was smile at her.

When the teacher told him to go and sit next to her, he hardly knew what to do or say to her. Her face was still in shock when he sat down. He was starting to question the wisdom of his idea of surprising everyone. Maybe he _should_ have let Yamato tell everyone he was back. His mind was suddenly taken back to over six years ago when this situation had happened before. So all he could think to do was echo his words from back then. "Together again."

There had been a pause, but she had repeated her words back to him. "Just like old times."

It was in those words that he found hope. He knew the reason he had to tell the Digidestined for severing connection to them wasn't a good one at all. But she had forgiven him already. Takeru smiled at the thought. Hikari was still the girl that he remembered.

"So what have you been doing all these years," Iori asked as the four Digidestined sat underneath a tree eating lunch.

Takeru smiled at the youngest Digidestined. "Nothing really," Takeru said. "France was great. There were all this old buildings to go and see. But I really missed Japan. It was certainly a different culture." Takeru laughed.

"So did you learn French," Ken asked.

Takeru nodded. "Yeah, I figured that if I was going to live in the place, I should at least know the language. I knew a little bit before I went because of my grandfather, but not very much." He laughed. "I think I finally had it down before I left at least. The whole week before I left, I tried to speak in Japanese at home again and found myself stumbling around the language a bit. I'm glad I practiced before I came back."

"Did your mom transfer back to the Japan?" Hikari asked.

Takeru shook his head. "No, I came back alone. It took me a long time, but my mother finally agreed to let me come back to Japan and live with my dad. I can't tell who was more surprised by this: my dad or Yamato. I took the entrance exam to this school while still in France, because I knew you were here."

All of them looked surprised at this. Takeru probably knew the reason why as well. He was sure that they assumed that, just as they hadn't heard from him, they had all eventually stopped contacting him. All but one.

"How did you know which school we came to?" Ken asked.

Takeru laughed hardest at this, remembering the afternoon he had learned about it. "Daisuke sent me quite the long message about it, actually," he explained. "He was so mad that you—well maybe actually mostly just Hikari—were going to a different school than him."

"You…you talked to Daisuke?" Hikari asked shock clearly in her voice. Takeru thought he heard some hurt in there as well.

Takeru grimaced. "Not…really," he said slowly. "Daisuke has been rather…persistent these four years. I never replied, but he never failed to send me a message at least once every month or so." Takeru laughed softly. "It kind of surprised me. Out of all of you, I never really expected it would be Daisuke that just wouldn't give up on me." He looked at his three friends and sort of noticed that guilt was playing across their features. "I'm not blaming you," he quickly added. "It was more my fault than anything. I was the one who stopped replying to your messages. And for that, I'm terribly sorry."

Hikari rested her hand on his arm. "You had your reasons," she said softly. They sat in silence for a moment, and all of them jumped when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Hikari snatched her hand away from Takeru's arm, as if just realizing that it was still there. Takeru watched as a soft blush crept up her cheeks and wanted to laugh at it all. Somehow, since he was thrown into the midst of the more lose culture of the French, he had sort of forgotten how reserved the Japanese culture was.

Takeru stood and offered his hand to Hikari. "Shall we?" She nodded and packed up her bag. Then she took Takeru's offered hand. He helped her onto her feet. He reluctantly let go of her hand once she was steadied. They said good-bye Iori and Ken and walked back to the classroom together. Once inside the door, they were bombarded by a bunch of girls.

* * *

Ken watched as Hikari and Takeru walked away. He smiled, glad that Takeru was finally back among their numbers. With him back, the Digidestined were finally complete again.

"What do you think his reasons were?" Iori asked him.

"Well," Ken said. "If anyone can find out what they are from him, it will be Hikari. They are best friends."

"I think they are much more than that," Iori said, in his characteristically way of seeing beyond what lay beneath the surface. "Somehow, I feel much better knowing that Hope and Light are together again."

Ken smiled. "I know what you mean. Those two have gotten all of us out of some very bad situations. I guess Azulongmon was right when he said Hope and Light were special Crests. If Hope and Light are around, we can do anything."

* * *

Hikari subconsciously shuffled closer to Takeru when her friends swarmed around them the moment they walked back in the classroom. Their teacher was not there yet, and her friends were _suggesting_ that she introduce them to Takeru. "So how do you know each other," one girl asked.

Takeru laughed. "Hikari and I are childhood friends," he explained, ignoring the girls' clearly shocked look at his use of Hikari's first name without an honorific. "I lived in Odaiba up until four years ago when I moved to France. Now I'm back."

Her friends seemed to give her this _knowing_ look. She blushed at what she knew they were implying and thinking. She knew it was her own fault. She had been confessed to many times, but had always said no. She couldn't quite explain why it was, but she had never gotten a feeling from any of those boys that she _belonged_ with them at all. She hated to think of dragging some boy along when she knew her heart would never be theirs. So she had given them the only mercy she could by rejecting them right at the beginning. She had always tried to be kind about it, and luckily, she had lost none of her friends and had never experienced an awkward moment with any of those boys that confessed. Her friends now seemed to think that she was probably just _pining_ away for her childhood friend all this time.

"What are your plans after school?" another girl asked.

"He's busy," Hikari spoke up, cutting off any reply Takeru might have made. She didn't trust herself to look up at him, knowing the shocked look that would be on his face. "We're going to catch up with each other," she explained quickly. She smiled and said, "We haven't seen each other in four years. I'm sure you'll understand." This had been her plan all along, but she hadn't really talked about it with Takeru yet.

Her friends nodded, clearly torn between happiness _for_ her and jealously _of_ her. Hikari and Takeru took their seats along with the rest of them when the teacher arrived into the classroom.

"So what are these plans that I have?" Takeru teased in a whisper.

Hikari smiled, but turned hesitant. She lowered her voice to a whisper as well as she leaned closer and said, "I was planning on going to the Digital World today. Do you want to come? Patamon would be so happy to see you, Takeru."

Takeru grimaced. "Patamon's probably angry at me."

Hikari shook her head. "He's not," she said. "But he has been very sad without you."

Takeru half-smiled, but didn't answer. Instead he said, "Yamato told me that the get-together wasn't until Saturday. Why are you going today?"

Hikari shrugged. "I go to the Digital World a lot. Probably more often than any of the others. I like to go there to think and Gatomon was the best friend I had left after you moved. We can talk there without any of the others and it will be a chance for you and Patamon to see each other before everyone else is there."

Takeru paused. "All right," he said. "Let's go to the Digital World."

Hikari smiled. "Great," she said. She added, "We can use the computer at my house. Is that okay?"

"Sure," Takeru whispered back.

Hikari anxiously waited for the end of school. Unlike the first half of school, in which she had not paid one lick of attention to the teacher, she was now involved in the class, paying avid attention to the teachers as they taught their material. In no time, the final bell was ringing and it was time to go home for the day. Hikari, with Takeru in tow, managed to slip past their friends, call a quick good-bye to Ken and Iori, and make it off school grounds without too much trouble.

The two walked side by side toward Hikari's apartment. At first, they reminisced about the old days of their Digimon adventures, laughing about Taichi's and/or Daisuke's crazy "plans" about something or another, Jyou's incredibly bad luck, and Koushiro's strange theories about just anything. As they were nearing the apartment, a pause came over the conversation. Hikari looked up at Takeru and said, "So, are you ready to tell me your reasons?"


	3. Brother

Takeru rubbed the back of his head and sighed. He reminded himself that the reason he had to tell the Digidestined for not talking to them was _not_ a very good reason at all, but, now that he was back, he couldn't leave his friends, especially Hikari, in the dark about why he had acted the way he did. "I'm not really sure where to start," he finally said.

"Let's start with why you didn't come to the Digital World anymore after you moved," Hikari said. "With your D-3, you could have come to the Digital World anytime you wanted. We could have met up much easier there than here in the real world."

Takeru smiled wryly. "That's actually an easy question," he said. "We didn't have a computer in France."

"What?" Hikari asked and Takeru could hear the shock in her voice. "Why didn't you have a computer?"

"My mom didn't want one," Takeru replied. "I guess that's kind of the beginning of the reason for everything. Mom didn't want me going to the Digital World anymore because she felt that every time we went something bad would happen to me. I thought she was exaggerating a bit, but what could I do? She's my mom." He paused and sighed. "She knew that if we didn't have a computer in our home that it would be much harder for me to go to the Digital World, especially since she forbade me to go. She thought that since there was peace there now, I didn't need to go anymore. She didn't understand that there was more to going to the Digital World than saving it from dark Digimon all the time. I couldn't go against her wishes. She's my mom," he repeated, a little more softly this time.

Hikari laid her hand on his arm again as they continued to walk to her apartment. "I guess I can understand why you didn't come to the Digital World. I can't really be mad at you for that." But her voice took on a slightly harsher tone with her next words. "But I can be mad about this: _why_ didn't you explain this to us?" she asked.

Takeru shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I just thought eventually I could convince her to let me go, but after a few months, I knew she was adamant about it." He sighed. "Then I just stopped talking to you guys because…because, well, it was painful, I guess."

"Painful?" Hikari repeated, hurt clear in her voice.

"Uh…that didn't exactly come out as I meant," Takeru said in a rush. "I knew that since I couldn't go to the Digital World and my mother was fairly adamant that we would be staying near my grandfather from now on, the likelihood of me seeing you guys again anytime soon were about slim to none." Takeru ran a hand through his hair frustrated. "I guess I thought it would be easier to just not talk to you anymore since I knew I wouldn't see you again. Then I thought that if I didn't explain myself, you guys would be too mad at me to bug me too much. Which worked on all of you except, I guess, Daisuke." He sighed again. "I know it's not a very good reason. But it's the explanation that I have."

Takeru waited as Hikari said nothing. They walked the whole rest of the way to her front door in complete awkward silence. They stopped and Takeru waited for Hikari to open the door, which she didn't. He looked down at her and saw the tears brimming in her eyes that were probably only staying there and not streaming down her cheeks by her own sheer will. "Hikari?" he asked tentatively.

Hikari, wiping her eyes, said, "I suppose I understand your reason, but when you just stopped talking to me, it hurt so much. I just kept wondering if there was something _I_ did to force you away."

"It wasn't your fault at all, Hikari," Takeru said almost desperate. "The blame is all mine." He had almost forgotten this about Hikari. She usually did blame _herself_ for everything. She was always thinking of others.

Hikari shrugged, not really saying anything else. Takeru reached out a hand to touch her cheek, but halfway there he let it drop back to his side as he turned away from Hikari. He clenched his fist and wanted to hit himself. He hadn't really thought about the pain it would cause his friends. He had forgotten to think of Hikari, Patamon, and the rest of his friends. He had given up hope in himself and his friends. And that was probably how they had gotten to him. "Some bearer of hope I turned out to be," he muttered out loud. He turned back to Hikari. "I promise I won't ever do this to you again."

Hikari put the key in the lock and opened the door. "I forgive you, Takeru," she said. "Really, I do." She walked into the empty apartment with Takeru walking in behind her.

Takeru had to smile when he saw the inside of the apartment. It was exactly the same as when he had left four years ago. But then a frown came back onto his face. "Are you sure, Hikari?" he asked. "Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you stayed angry at me for a long time."

Hikari shrugged. "It's just not my nature, I guess," she said. She slipped her shoes off and Takeru followed her example. Instead of leaving them by the door, she carried them to her room. Takeru did the same. After all, he knew it probably wasn't a good idea to go to the Digital World with no shoes.

Honestly, Takeru wasn't too surprised that Hikari had forgiven him so easily. As the bearer of light, Hikari always thought of others before herself. She seemed to have kept truer to her strength than he had.

They walked into Hikari's room, and she sat down at her computer, bringing up the port to the Digital World. She pulled her D-3 and D-Terminal from her own bag and turned to Takeru. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.

Takeru pulled out his own D-3 and D-Terminal. "As ready as I'll ever be," he replied.

Hikari nodded and held up her D-3 to the computer. "Digi-port open!" she said.

When they arrived, Takeru looked around at the forest they were in. "This place hasn't changed at all," he said. "These are still some of the weirdest trees I've ever seen."

"I prefer unique," Hikari said dryly. They laughed together and somehow, Takeru almost felt the click. Just like that, they were best friends again.

"Hikari! Hikari!" a familiar voice called out from down the trail.

"Gatomon!" Hikari called back, running to her Digimon companion. She gathered her friend up in her arms and Takeru had to smile. Somehow, Gatomon seemed to get smaller each time he saw her. When they first met, Hikari could hardly pick her Digimon up. Five years ago, Hikari could hold her companion, but now Gatomon seemed to be somewhere along the size of a normal cat in Hikari's arms.

Gatomon's blue eyes turned to Takeru. "Hikari?" she asked. "Is this who I think it is?"

"It's nice to see you again, Gatomon," Takeru said, not knowing what else to say. He really wanted to ask about Patamon, but was almost afraid of the answer. But suddenly he didn't have to.

"Gatomon, you shouldn't run ahead so fast!"

Patamon came flying into view. He stopped when his eyes locked with Takeru. Takeru felt his heart constrict at the sight of his Digimon. He had no idea what to say. Patamon was sure to be so mad at him, and wouldn't likely forgive him as well as Hikari had. But, as it turned out, he didn't have to say anything at all. Patamon's face split into a huge grin and he cried out, "Takeru!" Patamon flew to him, and Takeru gathered him into a hug. He was surprised at how small Patamon seemed, just like Gatomon. He and Hikari had grown, but their Digimon had remained just as they always had been.

"Patamon, I'm so sorry. Please forgive me," he mumbled. He felt the tears gather in the corner of his eyes, but they didn't quite fall. He noticed that Hikari and Gatomon had slipped a little way away to leave him and Patamon in somewhat privacy. Takeru began to explain to Patamon just what he had said to Hikari earlier.

"It's all right, Takeru," Patamon said. "I forgive you. Just please don't leave again for so long."

"I won't, Patamon," Takeru said. "Never again."

Hikari and Gatomon joined them again and all four smiled at each other.

* * *

Taichi opened the door to his family's apartment, glad that someone was home. He thought that Hikari would probably be home from school, since she didn't belong to any clubs, but some days when he came home for a visit, it was only to find his sister had gone to the Digital World again.

As he slipped off his own shoes, he looked at the shoes already in the entryway. Hikari's were there, but his parents' shoes were gone. Usually that meant that Hikari was home alone, but there was another pair of shoes that he did not recognize. It wasn't completely unheard of for Hikari to have friends over, but the unknown shoes clearly belonged to a male. He didn't recognize the shoes as belonging to any of the Digidestined men, who would usually be the only boys Hikari would have over.

Taichi was suddenly a brother of mixed feelings. It was _possible_ that this boy _could_ be Hikari's boyfriend and he didn't quite know how he should feel about that. On one hand, Hikari was after all seventeen years old and plenty old enough to _have_ a boyfriend. On the other hand, Hikari was his precious little sister that no man would probably ever be worthy enough for her.

But then again, he had heard from Yamato, who heard it from Sora, who had talked to Miyako, who told her that Hikari turned down any confessions that she got.

Suddenly, he heard Hikari scream from her room, which launched Taichi into action. He raced to her doorway and threw open the door. He found Hikari sitting on the floor against her desk and some blond kid on his knees leaning over her with _his hands on her waist_.

The three stared at each other for a moment until the blond sat back on his heels and said, "Oh, hey, Taichi. How have you been?"

Completely ignoring the fact that this "stranger" knew his name, Taichi marched over to him, grabbed the kid's shirt, and brandished his fist in the blond's face. "All right, buddy. I don't care if you are her boyfriend or whatever, nobody lays a hand on Hikari."

Hikari placed a hand on his fist and, almost but not quite yelling, said, "Taichi! Let Takeru go! He wasn't doing anything."

Taichi looked at his younger sister in surprise. Her face seemed to be red with anger, but he could also see a flash of embarrassment in her eyes. He turned his attention back to the blond, whose blue eyes seemed to be full of amusement more than anything else. "Takeru?" he repeated, releasing the boy's shirt and backing off, just a bit. He studied the kid for a moment and found the boy he once knew in the young man before him. Not to mention that he looked somewhat like Yamato did at seventeen, minus the hair gel.

Takeru smiled. "Somehow, that wasn't exactly what I was expecting," he said. "But it is still good to see you again, Taichi."

Taichi rubbed the back of his head and laughed weakly. "Sorry about that, Takeru," he said, still reeling a bit at finding the bearer of Hope in his apartment again. "When I heard Hikari scream, I guess my older-brother-mode sort of kicked in automatically. I thought someone was attacking her."

Hikari huffed and said, "That's not really far off."

Takeru laughed and said, "Well, if you had just told me what I wanted to know, I wouldn't have had to tickle you."

Taichi felt like it was four years ago before Takeru moved. Taichi felt just as out of the loop in their relationship as he always had. That was when it really hit him. Takeru was here and not in France. Yamato's behavior suddenly made a lot more sense. He had been acting strange all the past week, especially since he had been going to his father's apartment more often than usual. Whatever had been going on with him, both Taichi and Sora noticed that he was happy about it, so they had decided that they wouldn't bother him about it.

"So, what are you doing here, Taichi?" Hikari asked.

Taichi came out of his reverie and said, "Oh, Yamato and Sora are having a dinner date at our apartment, so he basically told me to get lost." Taichi laughed. "In the nicest way possible for Yamato I'm sure," he added.

Takeru laughed with him. "It's nice to know some things don't change."

Taichi shuffled to the door. "Well, I'll just be in the living room." He closed the door behind him and flopped onto the couch. He turned on the television and began mindlessly flipping through the channels, but keeping one ear honed to Hikari's door. He trusted Takeru, but four years was a long time.


	4. Reunion

Takeru grabbed his D-3 and D-Terminal off his desk and left his apartment very nervous Saturday morning. Today was the day of the Digidestined reunion in the Digital World. He was sure in the week since he returned to Odaiba, Miyako (who had probably been told by Ken) and Taichi had probably told all of them that he was back, so he didn't have to worry about any of them being too terribly surprised at seeing him. He knew that Daisuke knew given from the rather perturbed message he had received from him on his D-Terminal a few days ago. He had received a few other short welcome back messages from some of the other Digidestined as well. He was happy that all of them seemed to be glad he was back and none of them seemed to resent his long AWOL in France. He also knew that they were all expecting an explanation and he _knew_ that his explanation did not cut it, even though Hikari seemed to accept it quite easily. But that was just how Hikari was. She was so forgiving and willing to see the good in everyone, though she was too quick to lay blame upon herself.

He had almost reached Taichi and Yamato's apartment, which was where the Digidestined had decided to meet. Since Taichi was the leader of the Digidestined, it seemed wherever he went became their meeting place. Takeru thought this week had gone great. He and Hikari were best friends again and he had enjoyed lunch with Iori and Ken, though Iori had sometimes eaten with some of his first-year friends, rather than them.

As Takeru approached the door to the apartment, the knots in his stomach seemed to increase tenfold, just like they had that first day of school when he knew he was going to see Hikari again. He and Hikari had slid so easily back into their friendship, better than he could have ever possibly imagined after what he did, but he felt like with the rest of the Digidestined, it was probably going to be a completely different situation. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Whatever was going to happen, it was time that he faced it.

* * *

Yamato reluctantly stood up from his seat on the couch next to Sora to answer the knock on the door. He was halfway to the door, when Hikari came barreling out of Taichi's room where she had been watching Taichi and Koushiro preparing the port for them. "I'll get it," she said to him. "It's Takeru."

Yamato, somehow both surprised and not surprised at the same time, asked, "How do you know?"

Hikari paused and turned back to him for a moment with her brows furrowed in confusion. "I don't know. I just did," she said. She walked to the door and opened it, revealing Takeru on the other side. He watched the two exchanging brief greetings. He saw Takeru's face brighten as he talked to Hikari, more than he had seen in that first week Takeru had been back. Yamato smirked a little before he returned to his seat next to Sora, who had struck up a conversation with Mimi in his brief absence.

"Who was at the door?" Sora asked when he sat down.

"Takeru," he said, simply.

Sora smiled. "You're really happy that he's back, aren't you?"

Yamato just nodded as Takeru and Hikari finally finished whatever it was they had been talking about at the door and came into the living room where everyone was sitting, excluding Daisuke and Jyou, who were late as usual, and Koushiro and Taichi, who were still in Taichi's room on the computer. Yamato carefully watched everyone's reactions and was happy to see that everyone seemed to be glad to have Takeru in their midst again.

Ken and Iori remained seated and just smiled their welcomes, which made sense since they had been seeing Takeru all week in school. Sweet Mimi, sincere as always, jumped up and walked over to him, telling Takeru how happy she was to see him and how he had gotten so tall while he was gone and how it was great to have to whole group back together again. Miyako, at the same time, followed Mimi, getting up from her seat next to Ken, and started to give some sort of lecture to Takeru about how he was gone so long and how he should have written more but how she was happy that he was back anyway. Takeru seemed surprised at the semi-assault he was receiving. He and Hikari looked at each other and simultaneously burst out into laughter at something only they seemed to understand.

That was when Taichi and Koushiro poked their heads out to see what was going on. With his classic "Prodigious!", Koushiro joined the growing group around Takeru and Hikari and, from what Yamato could hear, immediately began questioning Takeru about France. Taichi followed behind, taking a somewhat protective stance behind Hikari. By that time, Ken, with his arm now wrapped around Miyako's waist, and Iori had seemed to decide to join the group, leaving only Yamato and Sora alone on the couch away from the group.

"He still has that effect," Sora remarked, suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Yamato replied not quite understanding exactly what Sora was getting at.

"Don't tell me you didn't notice," Sora said. "Did you not just watch the same scene I did when Takeru came in? He just brings that _life_ with him. That...I don't know...," she said trailing off.

"Hope," Yamato finished for her. "It _is_ his Crest, after all."

Before Sora could reply, he heard the front door burst open. Yamato stood up, worried for a moment that someone was breaking in, but that was instantly quenched when he heard Daisuke's voice. "All right. Where is he?" The group sort of broke up a bit, leaving a clear path for Daisuke to confront Takeru. Yamato watched in amusement as Daisuke marched up to Takeru, his face a mirror of Taichi's look of anger and frustration back in their first adventure and he had been tricked by Cherrymon during the fight with Puppetmon. "What's the big idea, buddy?" Daisuke said to him. "You don't write and then appear out of nowhere and expect everyone to happy?" Daisuke folded his arms and turned away from Takeru. "Well, I'll tell you I've half a mind to not be your friend anymore."

Yamato looked at Takeru to see how his little brother was taking this attack from Daisuke, but, to his surprise, Takeru had a smile on his face. "Whatever you think is best, Daisuke," he said, just a little too happily for situation, Yamato thought.

Daisuke, instantly on the defensive, turned back to Takeru and brandished his fists. "So what? You don't want to be my friend anymore?" he said. "I didn't get the Digi-Egg of Friendship for nothing, buddy," he continued. "It'll take more than that to get rid of me."

"I never doubted you for a minute, Daisuke," Takeru said, still in that amused tone. Yamato wanted to roll his eyes. Apparently Takeru was as adept of handling Daisuke, as he was now at handling Taichi. He and Sora stood and joined the group as Takeru and Hikari burst into laughter again. This time, however, they were soon joined by the rest of the group.

When they heard the door shut, the group looked down the hall to see Jyou just arriving. "Sorry," he said. "The door was open, so I just came in. I hope you don't mind. And sorry that I'm late. I wanted to finish one last bit of homework before I came."

"It's all right, Jyou," Mimi said cheerfully.

"Yeah," Taichi added. "It's not like we expected you to be on time anyway."

Jyou sighed. "That figures."

"I believe that since we are all here now, we can depart," Iori said, tactfully changing the subject Yamato noticed.

"Perfecto! Let's go!" Miyako said enthusiastically.

The group went into Taichi's room where Koushiro had gotten the portal to the Digi-world up on the computer screen. Everyone held out their Digivices and it was Daisuke who said, "Digi-Port open!"

With that they were on their way to the Digital World.

* * *

The Digidestined and their Digimon lazed about after they had finished eating lunch. Taichi was watching carefully as Takeru, Hikari, Patamon, and Gatomon were sort of off to the side talking to each other, laughing and smiling. Taichi was happy for Hikari. He really was. It had been a long time since she had been this carefree. It appeared that she had completely forgiven Takeru for everything, and Taichi did understand sort of, but a part of him still resented the kid a little. Takeru had explained to all of them over lunch what had happened in France. The only one who could really understand his situation was Mimi, who had left them for America between their adventures, but then again, Mimi was Mimi. And unlike Takeru, she hadn't been forbidden to visit the Digital World and had come to visit Odaiba occasionally during their second adventure.

But Taichi remembered what Hikari had been like once Takeru left. Things had been fine for a while, of course. Back then, none of them had thought it would be very long before they saw Takeru again. Hikari had seemed a little bit more sad than usual to have her best friend gone, but the prospect of being able to see him in the Digital World and talk to him through the D-Terminals had been enough. But every time, one of them suggested seeing him in the Digital World, he would come up with some excuse. They had all understood. Of course it wouldn't be easy to move to an entirely different country. They would catch up with him some other time. Soon the messages came less and less often, until they stopped coming altogether.

Taichi remembered coming home from soccer practice one day over a year after Takeru had left and heard his little sister crying softly in their bedroom. Since his parents weren't home, he had shucked his shoes off and raced to the room, wanting to fix whatever had Hikari that state. He had found her sitting on the floor with her D-Terminal open in her hands. Her sobs were soft, but tears trailed down her cheeks. Taichi had grabbed her by the shoulders and asked what was wrong. She had looked up at him and jumped into his arms, crying, "Why won't he talk to me, Taichi? What have I done?" He had known in that instant that she was talking about Takeru, but he didn't know how to help her. Takeru was his best friend's little brother. He had heard from Yamato that it wasn't just Hikari that Takeru had stopped talking to. He hadn't talked to his own brother anymore.

Ever since that day, Taichi had held a some resentment toward Takeru and he couldn't help but hold onto it just a little bit, even after Takeru had told them what happened in France. It was strange really, now that Taichi really thought about it. He had never really known Takeru to be vulnerable to despair like he had described. But Taichi supposed it made sense. Though he held the Crest of Courage, he remembered back when they had been fighting Etemon and Sora had been kidnapped by Datamon. He had been frozen in fear at that electric fence once Koushiro had explained to him what could have happened. Yamato, when he had the Crest of Friendship, had been turned against his friends by Cherrymon during the battle with Puppetmon. Mimi had been spoiled and selfish with the Gekomon and Otamamon when they made her their princess though she had the Crest of Sincerity. Taichi sighed. Koushiro would probably have some theory about this. Taichi made a mental note to talk to him about it sometime.

"What's wrong, Taichi," Agumon asked.

"Huh?" Taichi said. He looked around at the people near him. Daisuke and Veemon were standing practically above him. The other Digidestined and their Digimon near them were staring at him in a sort of mixture of shock and confusion. "What?" he asked them.

"Daisuke has asked you four times if you want to pick up a game of soccer with him and Veemon," Sora said from her position next to Biyomon, Yamato, and Gabumon.

Taichi laughed sheepishly. "Sorry, guys," he said. "I guess I was just lost in thought."

"That must have been unfamiliar territory," Sora teased causing Yamato to laugh.

Taichi just scowled at her. He stood and turned to Daisuke, grinning. "Agumon and I could beat you blindfolded, Daisuke. Are you sure you're up to it?"

Daisuke folded his arms. "I don't know, Taichi," he said, countering. "You're getting so _old_ and all, you might not be able to keep up with us younger generation."

* * *

Koushiro sighed as Taichi and Daisuke traded minor insults for a minute before they actually got out the soccer ball and started to play and pulled out his laptop. Normally, he would have asked Ken and Miyako to join him at the computer, but they were so much in their own lovey-dovey world that he didn't actually bother. And it wasn't long before Ken joined Daisuke and Sora joined Taichi with their Digimon so that the game was four-on-four. Yamato watched from the sidelines, as did Miyako who cheered quite loudly for Ken. Mimi and Jyou with Palmon and Gomamon went to watch over, Mimi cheering for both sides, probably not caring who won as long as they all had fun.

He briefly turned his attention to Takeru and Hikari, just a few feet away, who were still talking in what seemed to be like complete obliviousness to everyone else around them. Koushiro noticed that Taichi had been watching those two rather closely before he professed to being 'lost in thought'. Koushiro thought that it was probably the protective older brother part of Taichi coming out again. After all, Koushiro remembered when they were fight Machinedramon and Taichi had practically flipped out at him, revealing his emotional scars over Hikari when they were young.

"I don't mean to pry, but what are you doing, Koushiro?" Iori asked.

"Yes, Koushiro," Tentomon added. "Why don't we go watch the game with the others?"

"It's sure to be fun," Armadillomon added. "They even may let us play this time."

Koushiro chuckled. "With Taichi and Daisuke, that isn't very likely," he said. "Anyway, I was just going to email Gennai to let him know where we were in case he would like to join us. Gennai helped us Digidestined so much that he certainly deserves an invitation."

"That would be the polite thing to do," Iori agreed.

Suddenly, he heard Takeru and Hikari both gasp loudly. Koushiro looked sharply at them, noticing that Iori, Tentomon, and Armadillomon did the same. Someone gasping loudly in the Digital World was hardly ever a good sign. Koushiro didn't see anything immediately wrong. In fact, Patamon, sitting on the top of Takeru's head, and Gatomon, sitting on Hikari's lap, both looked at their partners in confusion and asked what's wrong.

Koushiro watched as Hikari slowly looked at Takeru as Takeru did the same to her. They simultaneously said, "Did you hear that?"

Koushiro slowly closed his computer and studied them. He remembered the last time Hikari heard something that no one else seemed to. It turned out to be some sort of manifestation of light that told them why they were chosen as Digidestined. He had always theorized that Hikari had some sort of special powers that the rest of them seemed to lack, but he had never thought the same about Takeru. Koushiro wondered if there was some possibility that he had overlooked something at one point.

Takeru and Hikari both stood and looked at each other intently, saying nothing, but for some reason Koushiro felt like they were communicating just the same.

"Patamon," Takeru said. "There's something we have to check out. Are you ready?"

"Of course, Takeru," Patamon replied.

"Gatomon?" Hikari asked.

"I don't know what this is about, but let's go," Gatomon said.

They shocked Koushiro again when they pulled out their D-3s and D-Terminals and, at the same time, said, "Digi-Armor Energize!"

"Gatomon Armor Digivolve to...Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!"

"Patamon Armor Digivolve to...Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"

Koushiro and Iori exchanged glances. By this time, Koushiro noticed, the other Digidestined had stopped what they were doing and had come back over, clearly having noticed the Digivolution. As Takeru and Hikari climbed up onto their Digimon, Taichi and Yamato walked past Koushiro.

"Hikari, what are you doing?" Taichi asked.

"I'm sorry, Taichi," she said. "There is something we have to do."

"Takeru?" Yamato asked.

He smiled at his brother and the group in general. "Don't worry. We'll be back soon." His face turned serious as he looked at Hikari. "Let's go." Hikari nodded. Without another word, Pegasusmon and Nefertimon took off, taking Takeru and Hikari with them.

Taichi called after them, "Where are you going? Come back!" He practically howled in frustration. He turned to Agumon. "Digivolve, Agumon," he said. "We've got to go after them."

Koushiro stood up. "I disagree," he said, calmly.

"What do you mean, Koushiro?" Iori asked, asking the question Koushiro knew was probably on everyone's minds.

"What if they need us? What if there is an evil Digimon to fight?" Tentomon added.

"Didn't we decide a long time ago to work as a team?" Gabumon asked.

"That's true," Koushiro agreed. He hesitated for a moment. He wanted to explain this properly, especially to their older brothers. "Ever since that spirit chose Hikari to speak to us, I have had a theory that there was more to Hikari than we first thought."

"That's right," Sora added. "During the fight with Warumonzaemon, Hikari glowed when she went to free the Numemon."

Koushiro nodded. Sora had told him of the incident after it happened, cementing his theory even more. "Exactly. Furthermore, we have the incident with the Dark Ocean as even more proof to this. The Scubamon pulled Hikari there because they believed she possessed some power to save them. But I think we have discounted one other person in all of this."

"Do you mean Takeru?" Ken asked.

"Yes," Koushiro said.

"I don't understand," Yamato asked. "Are you suggesting that Takeru might have some sort of strange power?" Yamato laughed mirthlessly. "I'm sorry to say, Koushiro, that that theory sounds a little crazy. He's my brother and I've never noticed anything that would suggest he had some sort of special power."

"I quite agree," Koushiro said. At this, everyone looked confused, even Ken. He continued, "Even I have never observed anything, until today. I always wondered how Takeru managed to get to the Dark Ocean. Hikari was pulled there and when Ken opened a portal to send Daemon there, it was because he had previous experience with it and because of the Dark Spore. But I always discounted it, focusing more on Hikari. But while you guys were playing soccer, I heard _both_ of them react to something I did not notice, not just Hikari."

Taichi rubbed his head. "I still don't get what all that has to do with why I can't go after them," he said.

"I was getting to that," Koushiro said. "They asked each other about something they _both_ heard. Clearly, just like with the manifestation that borrowed Hikari's body, Takeru and Hikari have been called by something. I believe that they would be aware if there was anything evil about it. We once put our trust in the younger Digidestined when we could not help in the battles. I believe that we must put our trust in Takeru and Hikari now."

Koushiro watched as Taichi squeezed his hands into fists. The rest of the Digidestined seemed to be waiting on Taichi to make the decision. "All right," Taichi said, relaxing his fists. "We'll leave them be. But if they aren't back before dark…"

"Then I will be the first to follow you after them," Koushiro said. "After Yamato, of course."

The Digidestined and their Digimon slowly returned to the soccer game. Koushiro looked up in the sky where Takeru and Hikari had disappeared to. He suddenly wondered if he made the right choice by stopping Taichi from chasing them, but he could not doubt himself now. Not after that speech he had given. He opened his laptop again, planning on tracking Takeru and Hikari by their D-3s…just in case.


	5. Wizard

"What is going on, Hikari?" Nefertimon asked, after they had been flying for a good hour. "Where exactly are we going?"

Hikari looked over at Takeru. He was staring intently in the direction they were headed. She was sure that he didn't understand any more than she did what was going on. All she knew was that she suddenly _heard_ a call to tell her to come. But it wasn't _hearing_ exactly either. Apparently, Takeru had _heard_ it as well, from his previous reaction. It was strange to Hikari. She was sort of _used_ to weird things happening to her in the Digital world. She couldn't remember a time when something like this happened to Takeru. "I'm not sure," she said, finally answering Nerfertimon's questions. "All I know is that we have to go this way. Someone needs us."

"There," Takeru said, suddenly, pointing to a shoreline. Hikari and Nefertimon followed Takeru and Pegasusmon down to the shore. They slipped off the back of their Digimon, both who returned to their natural forms of Patamon and Gatomon.

"Where are we?" Hikari asked. "I feel like this is the place, but…"

"There's nothing here," Gatomon finished.

"You know," Takeru said. "This place looks very familiar to me."

"Of course it does, silly," Patamon said as he flew up to take his place on Takeru's head.

Hikari looked at him, confused as to why Patamon would know where they were. Takeru voiced the question that was on the very tip of her tongue when he asked, "What do you mean, Patamon?"

"This is the entrance to Gennai's home, remember?" Patamon answered. "We came here before we went to Myotismon's castle when he told us about Hikari. Though we didn't know it was Hikari at the time."

"Oh yeah!" Takeru said. Hikari knew then why it looked familiar to Takeru, but not at all to Hikari. Hikari had not been there when the other Digidestined had visited Gennai, but Takeru had. Takeru still looked confused however when he looked at Hikari. "Do you think it was Gennai who called us?"

"Well that doesn't really make very much sense for him to contact just us and not the rest of the team," Hikari said.

"I agree," Takeru said. "Gennai usually talks to Koushiro. _And_ I've never heard anything from him that would suggest he could contact us in some sort of telepathic way."

There was a distinct pause, before Gatomon asked, "Well, are we just going to stand here on the beach all day or actually go find out what is going on?"

"How do we get in?" Hikari asked.

"Last time, Gennai let us in," Takeru replied. "There really isn't any other way in unless he opens it. Sort of the bad part about living in the ocean, I guess."

Just as he said this, the ocean began to part, revealing the stairs to Gennai's house. Hikari followed Takeru as they walked to the stairway. Though she had heard about this from the others, it was still quite strange to walk on stairs when you had water on either side of you instead of wall. Then again, this wasn't really any stranger than any of the other things she had seen in the Digital World.

As they walked, Hikari had to admit that she agreed with Takeru. Koushiro, their sort of resident expert on Gennai, had never once mentioned anything about Gennai that would indicate he had the ability to contact them telepathically, nor had she observed anything that would suggest it. That probably meant that someone else had contacted them, but Hikari still neither knew nor understood why they had only called her and Takeru.

It wasn't very long until a home appeared. It looked like a traditional Japanese house, except for the fact that there were fish swimming around it. "That's it," Takeru said. "That's where Gennai lives."

As if on cue, Gennai opened the door and waved to them. "I see that you got the call. Come on in. We have something to tell you." He walked back into the house, but left the door open, clearly indicating that they should follow him.

Hikari exchanged a glance with Takeru, then with Gatomon. Hikari was sort of surprised when Takeru held out his hand to her. "Let's go," he said.

Hikari nodded and took his hand. Takeru smiled reassuringly at her and she couldn't help but smile back. Takeru suddenly chuckled. "What?" Hikari asked.

He lifted their hands. "Your hand is tiny," he said, chuckling some more.

Hikari's jaw dropped. She huffed, turning her head away from him. "Well, it wouldn't seem so 'tiny' as you call it if your hands weren't some sort monstrosity."

Takeru began to laugh even harder. It wasn't long before Hikari was laughing just as hard as him. She had to smile at him once they were finally too out of breath to keep laughing. He smiled back and there was a different sort of soft look in his eyes. One she hadn't seen before. She frowned slightly. "Takeru, is something wrong?"

"Nothing," Takeru said quickly. "We shouldn't keep Gennai waiting." Hikari followed with her hand still in his, but she still felt a little bit like she had missed something very important.

Hand in hand, with Gatomon leading the way, they walked into Gennai's house. Hikari looked around and saw that it was a lot more _normal_ that she was expecting. Except for the fact that it was at the bottom of the ocean and fish were swimming around the yard, Gennai's house could have belonged to any sort of relatively normal person.

They entered the house. Gennai was kneeling at a table. "Please, sit," he said kindly, indicating the other side of the table.

Hikari exchanged another glance with Takeru. It was clear that Gennai had been expecting them. Hikari began wonder if Gennai maybe _did_ have some sort of telepathic powers that they weren't aware of. They knelt on the other side of the table. Gatomon hopped catlike onto the table and sat down, her tail swishing a bit. Hikari suppressed a giggle. For all her protests that she _wasn't_ a cat, she sure acted like one a lot. Gatomon narrowed her eyes at Hikari as if she knew what Hikari was thinking. Gatomon's eyes flickered to where Hikari's and Takeru's hands were still intertwined as they laid them on the table. Hikari pulled her hand quickly out of Takeru's, sort of just realizing that they were _still _holding hands. Not that they hadn't held hands _before_, but somehow it was suddenly _different_. She put her hands in her lap and tried to stop the blush from creeping up her cheeks. She couldn't imagine why was she _blushing_. This was _Takeru_! He was her best friend. Things were just finally starting to be normal between them again. She was determined that she would not complicate them with _whatever_ this was.

Hikari chanced a glance at Takeru. He was looking at her and she was surprised to see a little bit of hurt in his eyes. But once he noticed she was looking at him, he smiled and softly said, "Sorry."

Hikari bit her bottom lip and was just about to say some sort of apology herself, when Gennai said, "I'm sure you're wondering why you're here. Since you _are_ here, that means you both received Azulongmon's call."

"Azulongmon?" Takeru and Hikari repeated surprised. Though she was shocked, things certainly made more sense. Azulongmon was connected to them by way of the Crests of Light and Hope. It certainly made more sense that he could contact them. "Is he here?" Takeru added.

"Certainly not," Gennai said. "My house isn't that big. But we both agreed that you two should be as comfortable as possible when you hear what we have to tell you. He'll be using the same holograph that I used to contact you when you first came to the Digital World to talk to us here." Just as he said that, a holograph appeared next to him on the table. It appeared to be sort of miniature sized Azulongmon.

"So you have arrived," Azulongmon said.

"Why have you called us here?" Takeru asked. "Why is it just us and not the other Digidestined?"

"We've recently uncovered a prophecy, not unlike the one I gave you about Myotismon nine years ago, that we are fairly certain concerns both of you," Gennai said. "Azulongmon felt that we should tell both of you first before we tell the rest of the Digidestined."

"A prophecy?" Hikari repeated. "How certain are you that it's about us?"

Gennai looked at Azulongmon. "Just tell them," he said.

Azulongmon spoke:

_The return of the Wizard will be proof of awakened power._

_The Great Dragon Destined slide to the depths of seduction._

_The Master destroyed, they shall lead the Demon to devour._

_Saving the worlds will require Light and Hope's destruction._

When Azulongmon finished speaking, the room fell into complete silence. Hikari could not think of anything to say. From what she _had_ understood from the prophecy, the future did not look too bright for her and Takeru. But then again, it was a prophecy after all. There must be some rule written somewhere that all prophecies had to be vague, incomprehensible, and ambiguous.

"So what exactly does that mean?" Takeru asked. "I especially didn't like that last line," he added. "Does that mean Patamon…" He trailed off and Hikari looked at him. His fist was clenched and a look of anger was forming on his face. She knew about him losing Patamon during the fight with Devimon so long ago. She hadn't known that he had still been so affected by it still. Takeru hated evil. This Hikari knew for a fact. Whenever he was confronted by it, he turned into a completely different person. He lost the bright cheerful aspect of himself that made him…well…_Takeru_.

Hikari laid a hand on his arm. "We don't know that," she said, bringing what little comfort she could.

"Yeah, Takeru," Patamon added from on top of his head. "We shouldn't jump to conclusions."

"At least not until Gennai tells us what all that gibberish meant," Gatomon said.

"Actually, we're not really sure what it means," Gennai said. "As I said, we discovered it not long ago. We knew it was time to tell you when the first part of the prophecy seemed to come true."

Hikari thought it mentioned something about a Wizard, and at first that didn't seem to make any sense, but slowly it came to her. "You don't mean—"

"Wizardmon!" Gatomon called out as the said Digimon walked into the room.

Wizardmon's eyes softened. "It's good to see you again, Gatomon."

Gatomon loped over to her old friend and hugged him. Hikari wasn't far behind. "I thought you were gone forever," Gatomon said. "Where have you been?"

"Once MaloMyotismon was defeated, I was finally reconfigured into a Digi-Egg," Wizardmon replied. "I only just managed to become Wizardmon again a short time ago. I Digivolved much faster than I did last time, probably due to the influence of my contact with the Digidestined."

"So the first part meant that Wizardmon would return," Takeru said. "But what 'power' has awakened?"

"That part we are not so sure of," Gennai said.

"I get that we have something to do with the prophecy because of the last line about Hope and Light," Hikari said. "But what does it mean about the 'Great Dragon Destined'? Is that…us?"

"Yes," Azulongmon said. "We believe that I am the 'Great Dragon' spoken of in the prophecy and since I am the Sovereign over Light and Hope, you are, in a way, my 'Destined' as you are the Digidestined of Light and Hope."

Hikari suddenly didn't _want_ to tell Taichi about the prophecy. That whole thing about sliding to the 'depths of seduction', whatever that meant, and 'Light and Hope's destruction' was sure to send him spiraling deep into protective-older-brother mode. She looked at Takeru and saw the frown crossing his face. He wondered if he was thinking the same thing as her about Yamato.

Takeru met her gaze. "I think we have to go back and tell the others Hikari," he said.

"Are you sure, Takeru?" Patamon asked.

"Yes," Takeru said. "Yamato and Taichi are likely to flip, but I think that we need to work as a team. I had forgotten that a little bit after I left." He said that last part so quietly that Hikari barely heard it. Then, he smiled. "Besides, if anyone can figure out this prophecy it's sure to be Koushiro and Ken."

"You're right," Gatomon agreed. "What do you think, Hikari?"

Hikari walked back over to Takeru and laid a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her. "I think that Takeru should be the one to tell Taichi," she said.

Takeru chuckled. "As long as you are the one to tell Yamato," he countered.

Hikari smiled. "Deal," she said. She looked back at Wizardmon. "Do you want to come back with us, Wizardmon? I'm sure the others would be glad to see you too."

"Certainly," Wizardmon said.

Takeru stood. "Is there anything else you have to tell us," he asked Gennai and Azulongmon.

"Just remember that there is no Hope without Light and Light cannot shine without Hope," Azulongmon said. "The stronger the Light is, the deeper the darkness." Hikari looked at Azulongmon in surprise. She had said the same exact thing over five years ago when they first encountered the giant Digimon. "Keep the Light inside your hearts strong, especially you, Takeru."

Hikari recognized those words as well from that day. Takeru had been telling Ken the same thing and when Ken had asked what the light inside our hearts were it was Azulongmon that had answered that the "Light inside of our hearts is called Hope".

"You have already been targeted, Takeru," Gennai added. "You must be careful."

"Targeted?" Hikari repeated. She looked at Takeru, expecting to see shock on his face as well, but it wasn't there. Clearly this was not news to him, but if he had known something, she wondered why hadn't he told her. "Takeru?" she asked, desperately wanting an explanation.

"I didn't want anyone to worry," he said softly. "I thought I had dealt with the problem, so I didn't feel the need to bring it up." He chuckled softly. "Remind me to thank Daisuke when we get back."

Hikari frowned. She was used to being targeted by evil powers, but clearly they now had Takeru in their line of sight as well. "Why Takeru?" she asked. "Why not me?"

"You are being targeted as well," Gennai said. "But I believe those that use the powers of darkness realized something when you were taken to the Dark Ocean."

"What did they learn?" Gatomon asked.

"That Hope will protect the Light from them," Azulongmon said. "They want the Crest of Light that gives life to this world, but they had failed to recognize the Crest of Hope that continues to shine no matter how darkness tries to hide it. That is why these two Crests are different from the rest. You must believe in yourselves. Together, you can overcome any evil."

There was a sort of silence that fell over them. "We should get back," Patamon said. "It will be dark soon. The others will be worried about us."

"You're right," Hikari said.

"Take the Digimon back to the human world," Gennai advised. "It never hurts to be careful. And let Koushiro know that I will email him if we find anything else about the prophecy."

They nodded. They said goodbye and left the house. Once they were back on the shore, they had Patamon and Gatomon Armor Digivolve. They climbed onto their Digimon and Wizardmon climbed up in front of Hikari on Nefertimon. Hikari was dying to ask Takeru what they had meant when they said he had already been targeted, but wanted to wait until they were alone. Besides, she didn't want to interrupt Wizardmon and Nefertimon as they caught up.

* * *

"Alright, that's it," Taichi said the instant the sun truly slid below the horizon, just when Koushiro was expecting him to. "Agumon, let's go."

"That won't be necessary, Taichi," Koushiro pointed out. "If you check your Digivice, you would have noticed that they are on their way back here right now. I expect that they will be here in less than five minutes."

"He's right, Taichi," Jyou added, staring at his Digivice. "How did you know, Koushiro?"

"I've been monitoring them on my computer this whole time," Koushiro said.

"I thought you said we should trust them," Yamato pointed out.

Koushiro sighed. This was precisely why he hadn't told the brothers in the first place that he had been monitoring their younger siblings in the first place. "I do think we should trust them," he said. "But it never hurts to be careful. If anything did happen to them, I would think that you would want to know about it so that we _could_ go and assist them."

Sora stepped between the two elder brothers, and, after placing a calming hand on each of their shoulders, said, "That makes a lot of sense, Koushiro. I'm glad you thought of it."

"There they are!" Miyako called out, pointing at the two flying dots in the sky. The Digidestined watched as their friends came ever closer. "Who's that riding with Hikari?"

"Prodigious!" Koushiro called out when he recognized the Digimon as they landed.

"It's Wizardmon!" Tentomon added. The two followed the older brothers over to them.

Takeru hopped off Pegasusmon, who de-Digivolved back to Patamon, and helped Wizardmon down first. He reached up for Hikari who let him help her down. If he hadn't been so close to them, Koushiro probably wouldn't have heard Hikari say, "You're going to tell me, right?"

Takeru's answer was equally as soft. "I promise I will tell you."

Hikari nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer. She turned to her brother and smiled. "Sorry to run off on you like that, Taichi. But look who we found!" She held her arm out to Wizardmon.

The Digidestined all came up to them now to say hello to Wizardmon. Koushiro stared intently at the two Digidestined who had been missing for hours. He had known exactly where they had gone and his curiosity got the better of him when he blurted out, "What did Gennai have to say?"

Takeru and Hikari looked at him in shock, but then Takeru laughed. "Good old, Koushiro," he said. "You tracked us with the D-3s, didn't you?"

Koushiro had the sense to laugh sheepishly. "I just wanted to be sure that you were alright," he said. "You have no idea how hard a time I had getting your brothers not to fly off on WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon after you."

Hikari glared at her brother. "Believe me," she said. "I can imagine."

All the Digidestined and their Digimon laughed at that, even Taichi and Yamato. "Sorry, Hikari," Taichi said, putting his hands behind his head. "I just don't want anything to happen to you."

"So you knew where they were this whole time, Koushiro?" Ken asked. Koushiro nodded.

"Actually, it wasn't really Gennai that wanted to talk to us," Hikari said. She paused and pursed her lips a bit. "Well, Gennai was there, but it was Azulongmon who called us. He—" She stopped and looked at Takeru. "Are you sure we should tell them?" she whispered.

"They're going to find out sometime, especially since we already told Gennai that we were going to tell them," Takeru answered. "He said he was going to email Koushiro about anything they found out. Which reminds me…" He looked away from her and his eyes looked across the Digidestined. Everyone followed his gaze as it stopped at Daisuke. "Thanks, Daisuke."

"Me?" Daisuke asked pointing at himself. "What did I do?"

"I'll tell you later," Takeru said as he smiled, but Koushiro thought he saw some sadness in the smile as well.

"Well, don't keep us waiting," Yamato said with a sort of impatience that usually came from Taichi or Daisuke.

"Gennai and Azulongmon told us a prophecy," Hikari said, slowly. "One about us."

"You mean about us Digidestined?" Daisuke asked.

"Then why weren't the rest of us told?" Miyako demanded.

"You misunderstood," Takeru said patiently. "It's a prophecy about Hikari and me. Just the two of us."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Gatomon asked.

"Yeah," Patamon said. "Anything that concerns you is about us, too!"

"It concerns all of us," Jyou said. "We are a team. So even if this prophecy talks about you, specifically, we are going to be involved."

"That's right," Gomamon put it. "We're in this together, whether you like it or not."

Koushiro watched as Takeru and Hikari exchanged a nervous glance. Whatever this prophecy was, it was making the two very worried even he could see that. They seemed to come to some unspoken agreement when Takeru began to speak:

_The return of the Wizard will be proof of awakened power._

_The Great Dragon Destined slide to the depths of seduction._

_The Master destroyed, they shall lead the Demon to devour._

_Saving the worlds will require Light and Hope's destruction._

"They told us that they didn't understand a lot of it," Hikari said into the silence that followed Takeru's recitation. "But they believe that now that Wizardmon is back, that whatever is going to happen is going to begin happening now."

"Gennai told us that he would contact Koushiro if he and Azulongmon figured out any more of the prophecy," Takeru added, still filling the silence. "He advised that we should take our Digimon back to the human world with us so that we will be prepared."

A heavy silence fell upon the group. "I have faith in you, Digidestined," Wizardmon said. "Together, you have brought peace to the Digital World and I have no doubt that you will be able to face this new threat as well."

"We should be getting home before our parents start to worry," Iori said. "And we should figure out who's going to protect Hikari and Takeru."

"Come on, guys," Takeru said. "Do you really think that's necessary? We'll have Patamon and Gatomon with us."

Yamato came and laid a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We just want you to be safe," he said. "Just let us do our job of protecting you."

Taichi walked up to Hikari and put a hand on her shoulder. "We don't want anything to happen to you two."

Koushiro almost smiled at the wordless conversation that Takeru and Hikari exchanged yet again. This time they were clearly exasperated with their brothers. Takeru sighed and said, "Fine."

The Digidestined decided quickly. They decided that for tonight, Takeru would stay with Taichi and Yamato and Hikari would stay with Sora, Mimi, and Miyako. Ken and Iori could keep watch over them at school, while the rest of the Digidestined would take turns during the daytime after school. Everyone could see how annoyed Takeru and Hikari were over all of this, but Koushiro agreed that it was for their own good, and even they seemed to agree somewhat.

Taichi and Yamato's apartment was rather crowded when all the Digidestined returned with their Digimon in tow. Hikari called her parents to let them know that she was staying with the girls, giving the excuse that it was late anyway and their apartment was closer than home. Takeru didn't bother calling his father, saying that he probably wasn't home anyway. Before Hikari left with the girls, Takeru pulled her aside and seemed to be whispering something to her. Hikari just nodded in reply and left with the other girls. The rest of the Digidestined also went home.

As Koushiro walked home with Tentomon flying behind him, he wondered what exactly was in store for Takeru and Hikari.


	6. Confession

"I promised Hikari I would meet her," Takeru said in response to Yamato's inquiry about where he was going the next morning. "We have something to talk about."

"You realize you guys have done nothing _but_ talk since you've moved back," Taichi pointed out. "What more could you possibly have to say to my sister?"

Takeru decided to ignore the question poised at him this time and just said, "Hikari is easy to talk to." He realized after he said it that it came out sounding a little more defensive than he had wanted to. He stuck his hat on his head and grabbed his D-3 and D-Terminal.

"You two are completely missing the point," Yamato said, blocking Takeru's easy exit out the door. "Dark forces could be after you and Hikari at any moment. That's sort of the whole reason we're protecting you."

Takeru sighed. He knew he was probably not getting out of this apartment alone short jumping out the window, and he had told Hikari he would come pick her up from the girls in only fifteen minutes from now. He had a brief thought of Digivolving Patamon into Pegasusmon and just flying out of the window, but decided instead to humor the two over-protective brothers. He didn't want to regret his decision to tell the other Digidestined the prophecy and just had to hope that this was only sort of a phase after the immediate knowledge of the prophecy. He came to a compromise. "Then come with me," he said. "I understand that you want to protect us, but I'm _not_ becoming a hermit. I'm going to see Hikari, so if you want to protect us, you'll just have to come along."

The two older boys exchanged a glance. Clearly, he and Hikari weren't the only ones able to have unspoken conversations. Takeru had to smile at that.

"I think we should go," Gabumon said. "It'll be fun to see the human world again."

"Yeah, Taichi," Agumon piped up. "Besides, if anything happens, we can always Warp Digivolve."

"All right," Taichi said. "If you have the two of us, I guess evil doesn't really stand a chance."

Yamato smirked. "But we are going to have to find some disguises for the two of you. Gatomon may be able to pass as some sort of strange cat and Patamon can easily be some kind of plush toy, but no one is going to buy that a strange wolf and orange dinosaur are walking around."

So Agumon and Gabumon were stuffed into some of Taichi's and Yamato's sweatshirts, while Patamon fit snuggly into Takeru's backpack. Five minutes later, the three and their Digimon were on their way over to the girls' apartment. Takeru knocked on the door when they reached it just a few minutes later. The boys heard three thumps, two clunks, a crash, and a scream (not necessarily in that order) coming from inside the apartment. The boys glanced over at each other. Takeru was about to ask whether Taichi and Yamato thought they should go in in case it was some evil Digimon attacking, when the door opened to reveal Hikari looking a little bit flushed, but for the most part put together. Hikari called a farewell over her shoulder and quickly closed the door after she and Gatomon slipped out. She smiled up at Takeru, and he felt his heart constrict in his throat a bit. "I had sort of forgotten what a sleepover with Miyako and Mimi is like," she said by way of an explanation.

As they walked to the park Hikari said was close by, Takeru took a moment to study Hikari. Clearly, she had borrowed her clothes from Mimi, given the amount of pink she was wearing. Takeru's own words came to mind again when he had said that he cared for her and she had replied in kind. The sudden urge to slip his hand into hers came to him, but he was also painfully aware of her brother right behind them. Just like his own brother, he was now taller than their fearless leader (minus the hair), but he had learned to never underestimate Taichi.

They soon reach the park. Because there were less people around, Takeru let Patamon out of his backpack and the small Digimon took his spot on top of Takeru's head. Before Takeru and Hikari could go further in, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to find it was Yamato. "Do you want us to wait here?" He turned to Taichi, who had just opened his mouth. "We'll still be able to see them, Taichi," he added, cutting off any protest his friend might have made.

Takeru smiled. Perhaps his brother understood more than he had given him credit for. He thought about it for a moment before he said, "I guess it doesn't really matter. I'll probably have to end up telling you anyway."

"Does this have anything to do with the prophecy?" Gabumon asked.

"Sort of," Takeru replied vaguely. "After we talked to Gennai and Azulongmon, I promised Hikari that I would tell her the real reason I stopped talking to her…and everyone else."

"There was another reason?" Taichi asked surprised.

Takeru nodded. Patamon, in all his innocence, added, "Gennai told us that Takeru had already been targeted by the powers of darkness."

And Yamato pretty much reacted just how Takeru imagined he would. He turned his brother around and placed his hands on Takeru's shoulders. Takeru could read the worry in his eyes that Yamato had for him. "Targeted? What happened and why didn't you tell us this before?"

Takeru smiled. Gently, he removed Yamato's hands from his shoulders. "I thought I had taken care of the problem," he said, telling them the same thing he had told Hikari before. "I didn't want you to get worried for something that I had thought was already over. I realize now that what happened was just a part of this, so I knew I would have to tell you what happened. I know Hikari will understand what happened to me, because she went through something similar."

He heard Hikari gasp and he looked at her. "You mean the Dark Ocean," she said.

"You were taken to the Dark Ocean, Takeru?" Patamon asked.

Takeru shook his head. "Not…really," he said. He finally just sighed. "Look, can we just sit down or something, so I can just tell you already?"

The group found a place underneath a tree. Takeru and Hikari sat next to each other right against the trunk, while Taichi and Yamato sat in front of them. Agumon and Gabumon sat next to their partners, while Patamon remained on Takeru's head and Gatomon had slipped up the tree to lie above them. Hikari placed a hand on Takeru's arm. "Just tell us what happened."

"I didn't lie about my mom," Takeru began. It wasn't really an important fact, but he wanted Hikari to understand that he hadn't _lied_ to her. "She really didn't want me to go to the Digital World again. I knew she just really didn't understand that there was more to the Digital World to me than just saving it all the time. At first, I thought I could convince her to let me go, so I didn't say anything to you guys. I didn't want to disobey my mom. Soon it became harder to come up with viable excuses that sounded plausible. I didn't want to lie to you, but at the same time, I didn't want to tell you the truth either. That's why I got slower with my replies. Eventually, I just stopped altogether. Stopped replying to you. Stopped trying to convince Mom to let me go to the Digital World. Just…stopped.

"I never even noticed the despair that crept inside of me. I didn't know it then, but it was the powers of darkness that were causing all of this. I had made some friends there in France, but they didn't know me well enough to know something was wrong. Not like you would have. Looking back on it now, I know I should have just told you what was going on. By not talking to you, I was probably doing exactly what they wanted…"

"What did they want?" Hikari asked.

Takeru slipped his hand into Hikari's, not even caring that their brothers were sitting right in front of them. "I think they wanted to separate me from you," he said. "We learned on our first adventure, rather extremely, I might add" he said, with a quick quip of a smile in the direction of Yamato and Taichi, "that we were stronger together than we are apart. Alone, we are vulnerable. That's why I have to thank Daisuke…and you, Hikari." He turned his gaze back to her when he said this.

"Why me?" Hikari asked, in an echo of Daisuke's words from yesterday.

"Do you remember how I told you that Daisuke sent me messages every month or so?" When Hikari nodded, he continued, "That was enough for me to fight the darkness for over two years. Just those little glimmers to restore some of the hope in my heart. Not that I knew I was fighting anything. I just assumed it was normal for people to drift apart. After all, what did I know about normal? Being Digidestined certainly changes your perspective of what normal life is like."

"That's for sure," Yamato muttered.

"I guess we have never really been normal kids," Hikari agreed.

"Especially you," Taichi teased with a grin to which Hikari just stuck her tongue out at her brother. "What? You were the one who used to whistle at me instead of actually talking."

Takeru had never heard that before and looked at Hikari in surprise. She was pointedly ignoring her brother and was looking at Takeru. Her face was a little pink and she asked, "So why do you have to thank me?" She was clearly trying to get the focus back on him and off her strange tendencies as a child.

Takeru happily obliged her and continued his story. "Though I fought, without even being aware of it, eventually, it overcame me. Perhaps, if I had known, if I had told you, I might not have be taken by despair," Takeru said. "But how could I win a battle that I didn't even _know_ I was fighting?"

"How could you not know?" Hikari asked. "I certainly knew when the Dark Ocean came after me. Even you knew then."

Takeru shrugged. "They didn't attack me like did you."

"What do you mean, Takeru?" Patamon asked.

"It was so subtle, so gradual," Takeru answered. "I think Azulongmon was right when he said evil learned from last time. I don't think they could have won if they attacked me outright. At least, I'd like to think so."

"So what happened?" Yamato asked.

"One night, almost two and a half years after I moved to France, I came home from school. Mom wasn't there, but that wasn't necessarily unusual. Things were pretty normal, at first. Once the sun went down, I went into my room to start getting ready for bed. I shut the door and was just suddenly overcome with despair and hopelessness. I just kept hearing this voice, but it was like that voice in your head when you're thinking to yourself, not like some disembodied voice or anything. Anyway, it kept telling me that I was alone and my friends had abandoned me. I think that was when some part of me finally realized that I was being attacked by the powers of darkness, but their foot was so far in the door, I didn't know how to fight them off. I didn't even know how to defeat them alone. Everyone else in our group who had encountered darkness before had always had someone to help them. Like you, Yamato."

"Me?" Yamato asked.

"That's right, Yamato," Gabumon said. "Remember the cave? I helped you to realize that you weren't alone."

"I remember," Yamato said, with a sort of somberness. "And Sora had us to help her when the darkness made her think she wouldn't be able to get back to Taichi in time."

"Ken had all of us, right?" Patamon said. "We helped him to not be the Digimon Emperor anymore."

"And I had you, Takeru," Hikari finished, squeezing his hand just a little. "I had you the first time the Dark Ocean took me and Miyako the second time, the first time Gatomon and Aquilamon DNA Digivolved."

Takeru nodded in agreement. "That's right," he said. "I had the sudden fear of becoming like Ken, because before we helped him, he had lost to the powers of darkness when he became Digimon Emperor. That fear only let the darkness crowd further into my heart. But that was when you rescued me, Hikari. I don't mean you physically," he added quickly, when he saw her mouth open. "On my desk was the picture we had taken together in New York when we went to visit Mimi. I saw that and it was almost like remembering you again for the first time. All I had to do was think about you and the Digidestined and hope we would be together again." He paused. "Then I glowed."

"Glowed?" Taichi and Yamato repeated at the same time.

"Yes," Takeru said. "I know it sounds weird, but it was like the time Hikari glowed saving the Numemon. This golden light just started to shine from me and the darkness was gone. I realized that I had forgotten briefly about the Light, but seeing you helped me to remember. And with my hope restored, it didn't matter how much the darkness tried to get me, my own light in my heart forced it away. That was the day I made my decision to come back to Japan. Back to the Digidestined. I plead with my mother for almost a year before she actually agreed to it. Then I had to work double time to finish my junior year in time to make it for third year here in Japan. I had meant to tell you guys I was coming back, but I guess I underestimated my dad a bit. I had thought he would at least tell Yamato, who would have told the rest of you. But it was fun to surprise you in any case."

"There is no Hope without Light and Light cannot shine without Hope," Hikari said, quoting Azulongmon words to them. "Did you know that the powers of darkness were going to be after us, Takeru? Is that why you came back, so that we would be stronger together?"

"I didn't know they would be after us," Takeru said. "But, yes, that is part of the reason I came back. I knew that if they ever tried again, I wanted us to be as strong as we could, which is when we are together."

* * *

The Digidestined gathered once again in Taichi's and Yamato's apartment that afternoon. Takeru wanted to tell the rest of them about what happened to them and Koushiro and Ken revealed that they had met early that morning and had come up with a schedule to protect Hikari and Takeru.

Taichi observed the somberness of the group after Takeru had revealed what had happened to him in France. The moment Taichi had heard the story this morning, the lingering resentment for the kid was just instantly gone. Under the influence of dark powers was a good enough reason for him, even if Takeru had caused hurt to his sister. Clearly she was over it, given how _friendly_ she and Takeru had acted this morning.

He had was once again been a brother of mixed feelings. _Clearly_, the two were more than just friends, but Hikari was still his precious little sister. He had a brief moment where he wanted to deck the kid for taking his sister's hand, but that was quickly replaced with the thought that if his sister was going to be _with_ anyone, he wouldn't actually mind it being Takeru. Their siblings hadn't noticed, but the moment _that_ happened, Taichi and Yamato had a quick silent discussion, that consisted mostly of Yamato asking if Taichi was okay with _that_ and Taichi giving his best friend a wry smile that signaled his approval. The two best friends had smirked at each other and both had to resist the urge to burst out laughing.

After Takeru had told them what happened to him, Mimi had walked over to him and told him that she was happy that he was okay now and Miyako had scolded him for not telling them sooner. Ken had laid his hand sympathetically on Takeru's shoulder, while Daisuke had began to congratulate himself on saving Takeru.

Koushiro called them all over, getting the attention off Takeru. "Now, we have compared schedules and Digimon and have come up with a fairly good schedule to watch over Takeru and Hikari. The problem is the nighttime. The best solution would be if Takeru and Hikari lived with some of the others, but—"

"Takeru can live with us," Taichi interrupted. He looked at Yamato, realizing that he hadn't actually talked to him _or_ Takeru about it. "If you can explain to your dad and Yamato doesn't mind."

"Dad kind of understands about Digimon and of course I wouldn't mind," Yamato said. "We'll just sort of explain the situation to Dad and go get Takeru's stuff this afternoon. This place isn't any farther from the school than Dad's apartment."

"Do you really think that's necessary?" Takeru asked.

"Yes," Taichi and Yamato said at the same time.

"Now that's settled," Koushiro said. "It still leaves the problem with how Hikari is going to be protected at night."

Taichi looked over at Sora, Mimi, and Miyako, who seemed to be having a quick discussion. They all nodded at each other. "Hikari can stay with us," Sora said. "But it might be more difficult to explain to her parents."

"Leave that to me," Taichi said, not really knowing what he was going to tell their parents, but somehow or another, he would make sure that Hikari was protected.

"Great," Koushiro said. "So we have three Mega Digimon: WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, and Imperialdramon. Everyone else can reach Ultimate, whether alone or by way of DNA Digivolving. There are ten Digidestined, so it would make the most sense to split everyone into groups of two. This plan will also require that Takeru and Hikari will be together after school so that we would only have one team protecting at a time."

"That's fine," Hikari said, smiling sweetly.

Koushiro laid out his plan, which looked something like this:

_Yamato and Sora with Gabumon and Biyomon _("You've planned your schedules to be with each other anyway.")

_Taichi and Iori with Agumon and Armadillomon_ ("Someone has to keep our fearless leader in line.")

_Miyako and Jyou with Hawkmon and Gomamon_ ("Ditto with Miyako.")

_Daisuke and Ken with Veemon and Wormmon _("Sorry, Miyako, but they _are_ DNA partners.")

_Koushiro and Mimi with Tentomon and Palmon _("We had oddly compatible schedules.")

After he was done laying out the groups and the plans for the upcoming week (Taichi and Yamato would take them to school, where Ken and Iori would be there to watch over them, then a group would take over after school), everyone looked at Takeru and Hikari, who had remained silent.

"I don't really know if all of this will be necessary," Takeru said. "But thank you. I used to think that I didn't want to be a burden to you, which is why I didn't tell you about what happened before, but I know that you guys just care about us. And anything that will help Hikari…and me not be taken by dark powers…" He trailed off.

Hikari smiled at them. "It's really sweet of you guys."

"We're a team," Sora said. "You guys are part of the team. We don't want anything to happen to you."


	7. Reflections

**_As time flows on…_**

* * *

**TAICHI YAGAMI**

When I first heard about the prophecy, all I could see was Hikari as a small girl, dying in the hospital. I had told myself that I would never let anything ever happen to her again. I wanted to protect her. I'm her older brother and that's what I'm supposed to do. I know she would do anything to protect the rest of us. And that's what has me worried so much about this prophecy. Hikari was the kind of person who would put herself in danger, if it meant saving everyone else. Like the time she gave herself to Myotismon to stop him from hurting those people.

Summer is coming soon, and nothing has happened yet, but that doesn't mean it won't. We keep to our schedule of protecting the bearers of Hope and Light. It's not too hard because I've found the two spend a lot of time in the Digital World. There we have even more friends to watch after them. Word spreads faster there than with high school girls. There's always Wizardmon or Piximon or Whamon or any other odd assortment of friends we've made there to look after them.

I watch the two now, looking so carefree despite the dire circumstances that surround them. That seems to be their power. Hikari would think of others and try to bring them happiness, while Takeru would keep an upbeat attitude and try to cheer everyone up. So I've got to do my job and be brave for the Digidestined.

**COURAGE**

* * *

**YAMATO ISHIDA**

As I had listened to what my brother had gone through, I felt like I had failed as his older brother again. Takeru assured me later that I couldn't have known and he didn't blame me in the least. I know he blamed himself mostly, but he had been alone. Still, he had won. I always knew that Takeru was probably one of the strongest out of all of us. And little Patamon packs quite the punch as MagnaAngemon, too.

As Sora and I take our turns with watching the two of them, I think about what the two have gone through. Not only have they been fighting monsters since they were little kids, they were so often the targets of evil Digimon. I think Takeru had a point when he said we didn't know very well what "normal" was. I mean, we're people who go around saving the worlds for the ninth or tenth time with little (or not so little) monsters with us. Hardly normal, but I guess that's what makes us Digidestined.

No one else can do it. We're the only ones who can make a difference. And prophecy or no prophecy, with all of our friends together, we're going to make sure Takeru and Hikari are safe.

**FRIENDSHIP**

* * *

**DAISUKE MOTOMIYA**

I like things to be simple. There are bad guys and we defeat the bad guys. I liked it when it was that simple. None of this sitting around waiting for the enemy to strike who-knows-when. I just hate waiting. If I knew where the enemy was, I would take Veemon right now and take him out, then Hikari and Takeru would be safe and we wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. Seeing as we don't know who the enemy is or when exactly they are going to attack, I'm stuck babysitting. But at least I get to hang out with Hikari.

I'll admit it. I used to like Hikari. I still do, a little bit. But I recognize that she's happier with that Takeru more than she is with me. I may be dense sometimes, but you've got to give me some credit. Hikari has been mildly depressed these last four years and it takes a complete moron to realize that she's only gotten happier since that stupid Takeru came back. Lucky for them, I am not a complete moron.

Besides, Takeru owes me. I'm the one who didn't give up on him and helped him win that battle with the dark powers. But he was my rival. How can someone give up on their rival…or friend?

**COURAGE/FRIENDSHIP**

* * *

**_We reflect on what is…_**

* * *

**SORA TAKENOUCHI**

Just when you think your troubles with the Digital World are over, something else always comes up. I guess as long as the dark powers are out there, influencing Digimon to become evil, we can't really help it. It's our duty to protect the worlds as the Digidestined until we no longer can or new Digidestined are called in our place. We were chosen for this because we have the power to help our Digimon.

Yamato and I are taking our turn once again watching Takeru and Hikari. I remember when I was once like their mother figure when we had no one but ourselves in the Digital World. Takeru specifically said that when I was around he didn't miss his own mother as much. It's kind of strange to see them all grown up. They were so small and young back then. Now Takeru was a tall lean young man with a dazzlingly smile that surely melted the hearts of all the girls at school, and Hikari was a graceful, petite beauty who, from what I hear, has many a men chasing her. Too bad that the two of the only see each other.

I look at my boyfriend, who is staring intensely, always watching Takeru these days. It's a good thing I'm not the jealous type of girlfriend. I giggle and he looks at me questioningly. I just shake my head, brushing him off with 'girl stuff'. I was wondering if it occurred to Yamato and Taichi that if Takeru and Hikari _did_ get together that would make the two of them practically _brothers_. Not that they weren't before.

**LOVE**

* * *

**MIMI TACHIKAWA**

I thought our fighting days were over. I hate fighting, but I know that's its necessary sometimes. I suppose I had to learn that the hard way, when Leomon sacrificed himself to save me. I don't like it, but if it is to save and protect my friends, I will do it. I'm still hoping that we find some peaceful solution to all of this. I don't want anyone else to get hurt, but I want Takeru and Hikari to get hurt even less.

I watch Takeru and Hikari together and think that they would make such a cute couple together. I've wanted to tell them this for the longest time, but when I mentioned it to Sora, she told me I should probably just let them figure it out on their own. She told me that love comes in its own time and I guess she would know, being the bearer of the Crest of Love and all. The most I can do is make sure that Hikari is looking absolutely adorable before she leaves the apartment every morning.

Koushiro is ignoring me again, being on his computer all the time. He's grown up to be kind of nice looking, in an adorkable kind of way. I hate that he ignores me, however, and I tell him that often as we take our turn watching Takeru and Hikari. Then he points out that he is trying to make sense of the prophecy for the good of our two little charges, and I kind of have to let it go because I too want our friends to be safe. Ooh, why are boys so infuriating?

**SINCERITY**

* * *

**MIYAKO INOUE**

I have to point out first that I am extremely bummed out that Ken and I are not in the same group to guard Takeru and Hikari. I have enough problems as it is, with him being in high school and me in college (my older sisters just _love_ to tease me about it). It is completely beside the point that I see him most _every_ other day. It's completely unfair that Takeru and Hikari get to spend everyday together, when they are not even _together_, while I must pine away for my own man. Jyou is nice and all, but he spends most of the time we are guarding the two worrying about all the homework and things he has to study for his classes. I guess medical school can be kind of stressful.

It's almost been a month now and _nothing_ has happened yet. I kind of can't even blame Daisuke for his apparent impatience to go and find the evil guy and just finish this already. I'm starting to get to that point. Though, as time keeps passing, I've noticed that Takeru and Hikari don't seem particularly worried about the prophecy. I would expect this of Takeru, he's always seemed like such an easy-going guy, but Hikari used to go into maniac depressed mode whenever she interacted with the dark powers.

We're in the Digital World again. Apparently Takeru and Hikari like to hang out here. Luckily this time we're on the beach! I guess that's the good thing about being able to go to the Digital World is that you can basically pick any sort of climate you would like to go to.

**LOVE/SINCERITY**

* * *

**_What might have been…_**

* * *

**KOUSHIRO IZUMI**

I have never failed before. The Digidestined are relying on me to figure out this prophecy so that we can stop the dark powers from attacking Takeru and Hikari. Takeru's story just cemented my belief that he too is something special like Hikari, more than the rest of us, something beyond just being Digidestined.

Everything always seems to center around those two and their "guardian angels". First, with Devimon, who wanted to destroy Takeru due some unknown prophecy that it would be the youngest that would destroy him, which Angemon did. Next was Myotismon, who was so preoccupied with finding the Eighth Child that he practically ignored the rest of us, probably once again to some knowledge that it would be Angewomon who would destroy him. Even when he came back, it was due to Angemon and Angewomon with the power of the Crests of Hope and Light that Agumon and Gabumon were able to Warp Digivolve in the first place. During our battle with the Dark Masters, it was Hikari who gave Agumon the power as WarGreymon to destroy Machinedramon and it wasn't until Angemon Digivolved to MagnaAngemon that we were finally able to defeat Piedmon. Once the younger Digidestined were required for Armor Digivolving, it was the Digimon of Takeru and Hikari who were able to Armor Digivolve and help. And both Gatomon and Angemon were able to Digivolve to their Ultimate levels once _before_ Azulongmon released his Digi-Core. Perhaps it was due to the sudden burst of Light into the Dark Ocean or the power of the Destiny Stone, or perhaps it was something more.

Mimi is mad at me again for ignoring her, but I must find out if my theories are correct. After all, the fate of the worlds could depend on what I find. I explain this to her when we are taking our turn to watch our charges, which she reluctantly seems to accept. One thing I've observed about Mimi is that she tends to really be sweet and sincere most of the time, but you do _not_ want her to be mad at you. Girls are probably the one mystery that I will never try to solve.

**KNOWLEDGE**

* * *

**JYOU KIDO**

Knowing that the world, if not worlds, will be destroyed if you don't succeed is a pretty big responsibility. There isn't really an "it could be worse" after that. It's a little bit harder to keep up positive thinking when you have such a bleak outlook laid before you. Gomamon tells me that I need to lighten up, but as the oldest of the group and the bearer of the Crest of Reliability, I feel the need to keep a realistic viewpoint on things.

Sure it's been over two months since we first heard about the prophecy and nothing has happened, but that doesn't mean that something terrible dreadful is not going to happen anytime soon. We have to be prepared. There's no telling when a Digimon might escape into the real world and wreak havoc upon the city again. I also have exams coming up and would really wish them to be uninterrupted for once.

As I watch Takeru and Hikari, I do realize that they have grown up a lot. I kind of have to smile as I remember when I had to save Takeru from drowning when we were attacked by MegaSeadramon when I could barely swim myself. I don't think I would have to worry about that now. I guess what Koushiro said is right. We're just going to have to trust them.

**RELIABILITY**

* * *

**IORI HIDA**

Summer will be upon us in little over a month. When I first heard about the prophecy, I thought I would see Takeru's "other side" again, like I did back when Ken was the Digimon Emperor and during our battle with BlackWarGreymon. But during these last two months that we have been protecting the two, both of them have seemed almost _unnaturally_ calm, considering the circumstances that will probably soon occur to them.

Once while I was taking my turn with Taichi, I managed to pull Takeru aside and ask him why. He answered that he and Hikari decided together that there was no point in worrying about what might occur. They wanted to live in the moment and cherish their time together with their friends and each other. Hikari had come up to them, having heard the last bit of what Takeru had said, she added that whatever was going to happen would happen. But she believed that together, they would be all right.

I've thought about those words ever since I heard them, and I have come to the conclusion that there is some truth to them. It is important not to ruin the good moments of today with the worries of tomorrow. But when those worries come, I want to be someone that the two of them can rely on for help.

**KNOWLEDGE/RELIABILITY**

* * *

**_Or what could be…_**

* * *

**KEN ICHIJOUJI**

I thought that if the dark powers were ever going to take revenge on someone, it would have been me. If anyone deserves to be attacked, it would certainly not be Hikari or Takeru. I always thought that I would be the most susceptible to the darkness, but hearing Hikari's and Takeru's own battles with the darkness has made me realize that the dark powers seem to attack what they fear the most. Miyako and Daisuke are always telling me about how I am being far too hard on myself, that I repaid my debts for all the awful things I did as Digimon Emperor a long time ago.

I don't want anyone to go through the things that I did. I know Takeru understands about losing your Digimon, since he lost Patamon back when they were battling Devimon. But I was more responsible for Wormmon's reconfiguration that Takeru was for Patamon's. Both our Digimon sacrificed themselves, but Angemon sacrificed himself to _save_ Takeru, while Wormmon sacrificed himself to _stop_ me.

I don't think I ever really needed Koushiro's theories to know that Takeru and Hikari were something more, something beyond Digidestined. I watch them now and you can practically see the Light and Hope that shines from them. Despite knowing that one day the dark powers may attack, they believe in themselves and in us.

**KINDNESS**

* * *

**HIKARI YAGAMI**

When I was young, I relied on my brother a lot. Takeru used to scold me a little for it, but I never could find it in myself to find any fault with Taichi. During our second adventure, I found myself starting to rely more on Takeru. He came to save me when the dark powers had tried to take me away to the Dark Ocean.

I'm having nightmares again. I don't want to tell Takeru or Taichi, because I don't want them to worry. I dream of not being strong enough, of failing and letting everyone down. Gatomon tells me I should tell the others about them, but I explain that I don't think it's the dark powers that are giving me the dreams. When Takeru left, I think I lost a little bit of myself. When he stopped talking about me, I had thought it was my own fault. Hearing about his battle alone with the dark powers, I felt like I had failed him. I should have kept trying to talk to him, like Daisuke.

I can feel his gaze on me sometimes in class and I wonder what it means. Can it be that he feels something too or is he just worrying about me…us because of the prophecy? I sometimes turn to meet his gaze. When I look into his eyes, I can see my light reflecting from them in the form of his hope. All I want to do was be near him. Touch his shoulder, his face, his heart. He is the focus of my heart, my reflection, and it was past time that I admitted to myself.

I love him.

**LIGHT**

* * *

**TAKERU TAKAISHI**

I used to wonder what would have happened if I hadn't left. Not only with my battle with the dark powers, but with…everything else. Summer is almost upon us now and it takes me back to that first summer we Digidestined were taken to the Digital World. The Digidestined are hanging around us and just waiting for when evil will strike. Hikari and I know it has to be soon. Somehow, we both feel it. Gennai hasn't told Koushiro anything yet, so all we can do is wait in anxious anticipation.

I sit here in class, hardly focused at all. After all, what student but Jyou would be focused on the last day of school before summer vacation? Well, I guess that not entirely true. There is one thing, or person I should say, that seems to be taking my attention.

Hikari. What can I say about her? She's one of those things I used to wonder about. Her light used to give me the strength to keep my hope strong. I don't want anything to happen to her. When we were younger, I used to have this idea in my head, and now that I'm older, I can't seem to get it out of head. Seeing her, being with her, she's once again become the focus of my heart. When she waves, I want to take her hand. And when she smiles, I want to taste those sweet lips. I've already admitted it to myself.

I love her.

**HOPE**

* * *

**_As time flows on, the changes begin. Slowly, the seasons change, riding in on the whispers of the wind. A fateful summer is upon us again._**


	8. Seduction

"The time has come. The preparations are finally complete," the smaller of the two Digimon said. He stood in front of a pool of water that showed a blond young man with a Patamon and a brunette young woman with a Gatomon walking in a meadow in the Digital World.

The larger Digimon cackled. "I'll prepare the welcoming committee."

The other one grinned. He waved his hand over the pool and the image changed to three kneeling Fallen Angel Digimon.

"You called?" one asked.

"Go to the children. Now. It is time we begin."

"At once."

The image disappeared and the Digimon laughed. "At last, I will have my revenge."

* * *

Hikari twirled around in the meadow, basking in the sunlight. Summer was beautiful, especially in the Digital World. Of course, only if you knew where to go. Ending up in the desert was not exactly her idea on how to best spend your day, which she had a _lot_ of experience with. Of course, since it had been especially hot that day, she had _wanted_ to go to a cooler place and play in the snow, but Mimi had put her foot down and said that there was absolutely _no way_ she was going to mess up her hair in the snow after she had spent an hour on it that morning. Though _why_ she spent an hour on it this morning instead of her usual half hour, Hikari didn't know. Mimi _had _to have known that she would be coming to the Digital World and would likely not be coming home in pristine condition.

Hikari looked over to where Mimi was pestering Koushiro, trying to get him off his computer as she usually did when it was their turn to watch Hikari and Takeru. She thought that Mimi did kind of have a point. Koushiro had been working on trying to figure out the prophecy with Gennai and Ken for over three months now. She had to giggle. It was sort of funny that their friends seemed to be more worried about them then they were worried for themselves.

She closed her eyes and lifted her face to let it bask in the sunlight. Soon, she felt a hand slip into her own and knew it was Takeru without having to look. A smile touched the corner of her lips. Takeru had been doing things like taking her hand more often lately. She opened her eyes and smiled up at him, which he returned.

Hikari wasn't really sure how to define their relationship exactly at the moment. She knew she loved him and she thought that they were something _more_ than just friends, but they hadn't had a chance to be alone to _talk_ about it. If it wasn't their older brothers hovering over them, then it was Daisuke or Miyako inadvertently ruining _any_ chance for a romantic moment. Even without that, Gatomon and Patamon were always around (point in fact, Gatomon was standing at her feet right now and Patamon was on his favorite perch, namely Takeru's head). She didn't really mind them being around, but she would really like to have the conversation that she wanted truly alone with Takeru. The only time they could really have moments like this was when they were with Koushiro and Mimi, who were usually too busy bothering each other to notice. Then again, Mimi seemed to be making it her mission to get the two of them together, from all the not-so-subtle hints she dropped on Hikari all the time, though, oddly enough, only when Sora wasn't around. Anytime she was talking about it to Hikari, she would abruptly change the subject if Sora walked in. But Mimi made sure that Hikari never left the apartment unless she completely approved of how she looked. Hikari had to get up earlier just to make sure she could leave on time. And it was just easier to do as Mimi _asked_ you to do.

"Well, isn't that just precious? Wouldn't you agree, boys?"

Hikari gasped. She recognized that voice. "LadyDevimon!" she yelled as said Fallen Angel Digimon flew into view with two other dark-looking Digimon that Hikari had never seen before with her.

Below her, Gatomon growled. "That old hag…let's get her." Hikari nodded as her D-3 began to glow. "Gatomon Digivolve to…Angewomon!"

Beside her, Takeru must have had the same idea as Patamon called out, "Patamon Digivolve to…Angemon!"

Behind them, Koushiro and Mimi must have noticed what happened because both Tentomon and Palmon Digivolved to Kabuterimon and Togemon. The other two Digidestined joined Takeru and Hikari. "Mimi," Koushiro said, typing quickly on his computer. "Send a message to the others."

"Got it," Mimi said as she pulled out her phone and began to compose her message.

LadyDevimon laughed. "Three Champions and only one Ultimate? I'm afraid you're going to have to do much better than that."

"She's right, guys," Koushiro said. Hikari looked at his computer screen which was showing the Digimon Analyzer he had. It first showed the Digimon that was on the right of LadyDevimon. It looked sort of like an evil purple goat. "That's Mephistomon. He's an Ultimate level Digimon. His Dark Cloud attack releases a dark energy that corrodes everything."

"Who's the other one?" Mimi asked.

"That's…NeoDevimon," Koushiro said after a pause as the image of the Digimon came up. Hikari could feel Takeru tense up beside her at the name. "He's the Ultimate form of Devimon. We're going to have to Digivolve again."

"Let's go, blondie! **Darkness Wave**!" LadyDevimon called out. Countless dark creatures flew towards Angewomon.

"**Hand of Fate**!"

"**Electroshocker**!"

"**Needle Spray**!"

Together, their combined attacks managed to stop LadyDevimon's attack.

"Leave her to me," Angewomon said. "**Celestial Arrow**!" Angewomon shot one of her holy arrows at LadyDevimon, who dodged it.

"Nice try, blondie!" LadyDevimon cackled. "My turn! **Darkness Spear**!" As LadyDevimon and Angewomon continued to fight, the other Digimon took the chance to Digivolve.

"Kabuterimon Digivolve to…MegaKabuterimon!"

"Togemon Digivolve to…Lillymon!"

"Angemon Digivolve to…MagnaAngemon!"

"Vilemon, attack!" NeoDevimon called out. A swarm of Vilemon flew into the fray as MagnaAngemon flew at NeoDevimon to fight. Lillymon concentrated on Mephistomon as MegaKabuterimon went for the Vilemon.

"We're outnumbered," Hikari said.

"The others are on their way," Mimi said, still holding her phone. "We just have to hold out long enough."

"Look out!" MegaKabuterimon called out. Hikari looked up to see a flock of Vilemon heading for them. MegaKabuterimon was on his way, but there was just so many of them. The Digidestined ran and ended up scattered from each other. Hikari looked up to find that Angewomon and LadyDevimon had once again begun more of a cat fight than anything else. Lillymon was fluttering around Mephistomon, avoiding his attacks. MangaAngemon and NeoDevimon were locked in battle.

She looked around her. "Takeru!" she called out, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"There's one of them!" Hikari screamed as a group of Vilemon headed towards her. "**Nightmare Shocker**!" She was stunned as the Digimons' attack headed for her. She had a brief flashback of Myotismon and his **Grisly Wing**, except this time there was no Wizardmon to save her.

"HIKARI!"

Suddenly, Takeru was standing in front of her. She wanted to call out, tell him to get out of the way. She didn't want him to get hurt for her.

A shining golden light formed something like a shield in front of them, blocking the attack. Hikari had to block her eyes because it was so bright. Once it was gone, she stepped closer to Takeru and whispered his name softly. He was staring at his hands, where the golden light that surrounded them was fading. "Did I…?"

He trailed off as LadyDevimon broke off her attack to send a **Darkness Wave** at the Vilemon that attacked them that destroyed the Champion Digimon as she screamed, "Not those two, you idiots! The Master wants them!"

"Master…" Hikari froze as she felt a breeze brush her face. The smell of water. The sound of waves. The familiar sinking feeling. "No!" she called out, her hands moving to hold her head.

She felt strong arms surround her. She knew it was Takeru. She felt comfort flood her body as he pressed her close to him. "We'll go together this time," he breathed into her ear. "You won't be alone. I'll protect you."

She pulled back just enough to look into his face. His cerulean eyes shined with hope, even now. She nodded into his chest. The last thing she heard was Angewomon screaming out "HIKARI!" as MangaAngemon yelled "TAKERU!"

* * *

"Where are you guys?" Koushiro muttered as he watched the battle that they were just _not_ winning. NeoDevimon was keeping MagnaAngemon locked in battle, which was preventing him from being able to open his **Gate of Destiny**, which would certainly be able to get rid of the majority of the Vilemon, just like it did during the battle with Piedmon. Which was no doubt their plan. Angewomon and LadyDevimon seemed to be on equal footing at the moment, though it appeared to Koushiro that Angewomon was more concerned with punching the evil Digimon than actually destroying her. LadyDevimon seemed to just bring out the worst in Angewomon. Lillymon was fine for the moment, but Mephistomon clearly had the upper hand and Lillymon was just playing for time as she danced around his attacks. MegaKabuterimon had his hands full with the massive amounts of Vilemon. It was only a matter of time before their Digimon ran out of enough energy to fight. He had lost track of Mimi, who he _was_ worried about, but he was more afraid that he had _no idea_ where Takeru and Hikari were. This was most likely the attack that they had been waiting to happen, given that every single Digimon they were facing was clearly an evil Digimon.

He finally saw Hikari and the group of Vilemon that attacked her. Then Takeru appeared almost out of nowhere in front of her. Koushiro watched as Takeru swung his arms in front of him and a golden light formed a shield in front of him. LadyDevimon then destroyed the Vilemon that attacked them, yelling something that he couldn't hear. Then Hikari held the sides of her head, as if something was attacking her mind and Takeru embraced her. The two of them began to flicker into grayness. Their Digimon called for them, but Takeru and Hikari just disappeared.

Koushiro knew he was dead. There was no doubt in his mind what Taichi and Yamato's reactions would be when they found out what had happened. As if on cue, he heard "**Nova Blast**!" and "**Howling Blaster**!" coming from across the meadow, scorching their way through some Vilemon. Greymon and Garurumon burst into the fight scene with Birdramon close behind.

"It's seems we're the ones outnumbered now," NeoDevimon said.

"Let's go," LadyDevimon agreed. "The Master's goal has been accomplished."

The three Fallen Angel Digimon escaped as they used the Vilemon to cover their retreat.

"Get back here!" Taichi called out as he ran into the scene, but it was too late. They were already gone. The Digimon reverted back to their normal forms as the group came together. Taichi glanced around and Koushiro could see what he was thinking. "Where are Hikari and Takeru?"

"They're gone," Gatomon said.

"What do you mean they're gone?" Yamato asked.

"We were fighting the Digimon, when Hikari was attacked by some of the Vilemon," Patamon said. "Takeru stopped the attack but they flickered out."

"It was just like the time Hikari disappeared to the Dark Ocean," Gatomon said. "I watched from across the street as she flickered and disappeared."

Koushiro noted that the probability was that the two had indeed gone to the Dark Ocean, but that wasn't what he focused on. _Takeru stopped the attack_. That was what Patamon said, which meant that that golden light that he saw _came from Takeru_.

_The return of the Wizard will be proof of awakened power._

Koushiro had thought that the 'awakened power' was the dark powers on the rise again, but perhaps he had been wrong in that theory. Takeru said that he had glowed when the powers of darkness had attacked him in France and now it appeared that he created some kind of shield that protected himself and Hikari from an evil Digimon's attack. Perhaps Wizardmon's return was proof of Takeru's awakened power. Then perhaps all of these occurrences were just part of the prophecy. He thought about the second line in the prophecy:

_The Great Dragon Destined slide to the depths of seduction._

Koushiro thought it possible that this was just what had occurred. People sometimes referred to the deep ocean as the ocean _depths_. And the powers of darkness were supposed to be extremely _seductive_. Takeru and Hikari had told them that Azulongmon was the _Great Dragon_ and in a way they were his _Destined_ as they were the Digidestined of Hope and Light. There was the possibility that the prophecy meant that they would be taken to the Dark Ocean.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by Taichi grabbing his shirt. "Why didn't you protect them?" Taichi practically yelled at him.

Mimi grabbed Taichi's arm and emphatically said, "Stop it, Taichi. There was nothing Koushiro or any of us could have done. They disappeared! How were we supposed to stop that?"

"That's right," Gatomon added. "We can't fight amongst ourselves. That won't help Hikari!"

Yamato put his hand on Taichi's shoulder. "I know how you feel, man, but they're right. Fighting is not going to help anyone."

Taichi let go of Koushiro's shirt, and said, "You're right. I'm sorry, Koushiro. I'm just…worried."

"I know you are, Taichi," Koushiro said. "I'm not sure if it will make you feel better, but I believe that this was part of the prophecy."

"What do you mean, Koushiro?" Tentomon asked.

Koushiro explained his theory. "So, if Takeru and Hikari being taken to the Dark Ocean was part of the prophecy, then perhaps they will be all right."

"Are you saying we shouldn't try to find them," Sora asked.

"Of course not," Koushiro said. "It is my belief that Takeru and Hikari will be fine for the immediate future, at least. There are still two more lines of the prophecy left. The time between the first line and the second line appeared to have been over three months. Whose is to say that this will not be the normal setting for the rest of the prophecy?"

Taichi curled his hands into fists. "You're right," he said. "Let's get the other Digidestined and figure out what to do."

* * *

The waves hitting the shore was the only sound to be heard in the dull gray world that was but a lifeless mirror to the world of light. An eerie fog hung over the dark depths, blurring the vision of those that looked out into the vast ocean. Hikari felt almost cold, though it was not physically. With Takeru's arms still around her, she was warm, but there was a sinking feeling inside her that made the feeling of an ice cube tracing down her spine. She shivered slightly and felt Takeru's arms tighten around her in response. There was no doubt. They were back in the Dark Ocean.

"Are you alright?" she heard Takeru ask.

She nodded and backed up from him just enough to look up into his face. She reached up and touched his hair. "You lost your hat," she said, wondering herself why she noticed such a thing.

Takeru chuckled as he captured her hand. "It doesn't matter," he said. He reached up with his other hand and brushed through his hair briefly. "Though my hair is probably a mess now."

"No, it looks great," Hikari said. She realized that, despite the dismal setting, they were indeed finally _alone_. She found herself unconsciously leaning back towards Takeru as she gazed into those azure eyes in which she saw a sort of intensity that wasn't normally there. But the moment was lost when Takeru let their hands fall back to their sides and stepped back, though he left his hand entwined in hers.

"We should probably get away from here," he said, turning slightly away from her. "Whoever pulled us here is bound to be looking for us."

"Right. Of course," Hikari said, knowing he was right, but still feeling a little bit of disappointment slice through her, but a little bit of hope too because, after all, he hadn't let go of her hand.

They walked away from the ocean. Hikari remembered this same dark forest she, Ken, and Miyako had wandered through before reaching the ocean. Takeru now seemed to have the idea that going _away_ from the ocean was the best idea, and Hikari was inclined to agree. Both of her bad experiences with the Dark Ocean had occurred near the _actual_ ocean, so she definitely wanted to get as far away from it as she possibly could. They walked for a long time, hours must have gone by. Strangely enough, neither of them had spoken a word since they left the shore. Hikari found it a little strange, since she and Takeru had hardly done anything but talk to each other since he got back, but then again, in this place, she didn't feel much like talking at all. Miyako had filled the silence the last time she had been here, but apparently Takeru mirrored her own feelings.

Eventually, Hikari got exhausted. She tried to keep going because she knew it was probably best that they stay on the move, but she kept finding it harder and harder. She finally stumbled over something, but Takeru turned back almost instantly and caught her.

"Are you alright?" he asked her for the second time that day.

"I'm sorry, Takeru," she said. She didn't want to be a burden to him, so she continued, "I'm just a little tired. We should keep going."

He frowned at her and Hikari knew she hadn't fooled him in the least. "You're exhausted," he said. He sighed. "It's I that should apologize. I should have realized sooner that you were tired. I was just so worried about someone finding us. We'll rest."

"We can't rest, Takeru," Hikari protested. "They'll find us."

Takeru shook his head. "We have to take care of ourselves," he countered. "We won't put up much of a fight if we're exhausted when they find us. But we should probably find somewhere that could hide us better." He frowned down at her again, and before Hikari could think he lifted her up into his arms before beginning to walk again.

"Takeru!" Hikari protested. "You can't carry me! I'm too heavy, and you must be tired too!"

"I'm fine," he said. He smiled at her. "I think you're forgetting that I'm older now, Hikari. I'm quite capable of carrying your tiny self someplace safe."

Hikari turned indignant. "I am certainly NOT tiny!"

At that, Takeru laughed, but didn't put her down. "You sure are a strange one, Hikari Yagami," he said. "Girls in France would have killed to have me call them tiny."

Hikari huffed at him. "I guess you think you're just Mr. Popular, don't you?"

"Well, you're friends are certainly always _happy_ to see me," he teased.

"Perhaps, they weren't very good judges of characters," Hikari teased back. "They're just suckers for a handsome face, that's all."

He set her down as they reached a tree that had branches close enough to the ground to hide under. "So you think I'm handsome?" Takeru said, grinning widely.

Hikari suddenly felt flustered and completely too close to Takeru. She could feel her face turning beet red, and hope that the gray haze of this world hid it enough that Takeru wouldn't notice. "Well…um…" Hikari had never really known herself to be out of words around Takeru before. She wasn't really sure why she had been caught so off guard. They teased each other all the time, but it just felt all so different for some reason.

Takeru was still grinning as he led her underneath the tree branches. "Left speechless by my handsome face, no doubt," he said, still in that teasing tone. They sat down next to each other and leaned against the tree trunk. Hikari didn't trust herself to speak, afraid they she might say something that would give away her feelings. They did have a _moment_ at the beach. Hikari was sure of it, but Takeru had all but rejected her then. Perhaps she had it all wrong and Takeru really did just view her as a friend. She could feel the tears burning in her eyes. Everything was just so overwhelming. She was tired. She was hungry. She was in the Dark Ocean. She was being hunted by Dark Digimon. She was in love with her best friend.

"Hikari." Takeru's voice was a quiet and calm center of strength for her. She clung to it, her pillar of strength.

"Yes, Takeru?" she asked, trying really hard to keep the tears from her voice and succeeding for the most part.

"I love you."


	9. Master

The younger Digidestined had gone home hours ago. Jyou had also taken Mimi home as well, after the latter had fallen asleep after breaking into tears a few hours after the incident. That left just her with Taichi, Yamato, and Koushiro at the boys' apartment. Sora didn't want to give up either, but it was closing in at midnight and she knew that if Koushiro hadn't found a way in by now, he was not likely going to be able to anytime soon. Especially with the lack of sleep. Sora didn't want to say it, but she sort of thought that perhaps there wasn't anything they could do for Takeru and Hikari. When she had had her experience with the dark world, her body hadn't really left the Digital World so it was easy for the others to reach her to help her. From what she had heard of the other's experiences, apparently only Takeru had ever forcibly entered the Dark Ocean, though Ken did make a portal once, at a great cost to himself and only with the help of others.

Sora glanced over to one of the corners of the apartment where Gatomon and Patamon huddled with what appeared to be dejection on their faces. Takeru and Hikari didn't even have their Digimon to help them. From what they could figure, the two _did_ have their D-3s with them, since they hadn't found them in the meadow, but they had found their D-Terminals near the picnic basket. The rest of their Digimon had remained in the Digital World this time, since the reason they had come to the real world became moot with the disappearance of Takeru and Hikari.

Sora gritted her teeth. She had to put a stop to this. She felt like Koushiro had been on his computer for the last three months. She stood up from the couch, walked over to where the boys were hunched over the thing, and quickly snapped the computer shut. She cut off their protests with an emphatic, "No." She looked Koushiro straight in the eye. "Go home now and sleep, Koushiro," she said. "I mean it." She looked at the two older brothers. "I want to have a word with these two."

Koushiro just blinked at her almost incoherently for a few seconds. Then he stood up and said, "Uh…right." He shuffled along to the door and, as he left, he called back, "See you later!" He softly shut the door and Sora trained her gaze on Taichi and Yamato.

"I understand that you are worried," Sora began. "I'm worried too. But you _cannot_ work Koushiro to death." Her tone and voice rose increasingly at this last line as she placed her hands on her hips.

"We weren't working him to _death_," Taichi countered. Sora glared at him. "Exactly," he added in a much quieter tone. Yamato, wisely in Sora's opinion, didn't say anything.

Sora sighed and softened a bit. "I think you guys might have to accept the fact that Takeru and Hikari might be on their own for this one."

"I hate not doing anything," Taichi said.

Sora laid a hand on his shoulder. "I know, Taichi," she said. "Believe me, I know. I'm not saying that we should stop trying to reach them or that we should give up. I also know that I am asking a lot. But I need you both to be as reasonable as you possibly can be."

"Sora's right, Taichi," Yamato added.

Taichi chuckled a little. "I know," he said. "She usually is."

Sora smiled at them and turned her attention to the Digimon in the corner, both so strangely quiet. She walked over to them and knelt next to them. "We're going to do all we can to bring them back safe," she said.

Little Patamon looked up at her. "Thanks, Sora," he said.

"I'm afraid it isn't going to be so simple," Gatomon said. "But that's no reason to give up, right?"

"Right," Sora said as she stood up.

"I wonder if we could find them at the beach again," she heard Patamon say as she walked away. Before she could ask what he meant by that, Yamato had taken her hand.

"I'll walk you home," he said. Even though it was only about a five minute walk to her apartment, Sora didn't protest. They walked in silence until they reach her door. Yamato stopped her from turning the key in the lock with his hand before pulling her into him and giving her a soft kiss. He rested his forehead on hers and whispered, "Thank you."

"For what?" Sora asked, a little bit genuinely confused because she had basically just accused her boyfriend and one of her best friends of something akin to attempted murder.

"I guess for being there," he replied. He cracked half a smile. "And for saving Koushiro from a pair of angry brothers."

Sora reached up and placed a hand on his cheek. "We'll find him, Yamato," she said. "Takeru will be okay. He's strong and it's not like this is the first time either of them have been kidnapped by evil Digimon."

"I forget sometimes," Yamato said, stepping back from her and letting her open her door.

Sora smiled at him before she walked in. "I'll come over tomorrow," she said. He nodded and she slipped the door close. When she entered the apartment, she found both Mimi and Miyako sprawled out on the couches. Mimi lifted her head slightly when Sora entered the room.

"Sora?"

"I didn't mean to wake you," Sora said.

"Did you—"

"No," Sora replied, sitting down next to her friend. "We haven't figured out the way in yet. They're still out there."

Mimi smiled. "Do you think they'll take this chance to admit how much they like each other?" she asked.

Sora had to smile back. She never gave up. "Mimi, considering where they are, I think that's probably the last thing on their mind."

* * *

It wasn't what he was going to say. He _was_ just going to apologize for teasing her like he had, since she had been apparently too tired to really take it as well as she normally did. So when he said her name the words that came out just seconds later hadn't been what he was wanted to say. But then he had looked into her eyes, which even this dismal world could not hide the tears just lurking within. He had heard her speak his name in a voice that was practically on the verge of breaking. He felt her shivering next to him with her petite body affected by the coldness of the world. He took all of her in and his heart just couldn't bear to see her in this state. Not _her_. Not _this_ girl. Not the one he _loved_. So those three words had simply slipped out and it wasn't what he wanted to say to her.

At least not _yet_.

The Dark Ocean was not his ideal location to be having this sort of heart-to-heart he could just imagine was coming as soon as she heard those words.

"What?"

It wasn't exactly the ideal reaction that Takeru could have imagined, but Hikari's sort of dazed, confused expression was much better than the all out rejection he had been hoping wouldn't happen. He also thought that her "What?" was less of an I-didn't-hear-what-said and more of a Did-you-really-just-say-what-I-think-you-said. He contemplated for a moment to just brush it off and pretend he really hadn't said what he had said, but he quickly decided against it. So now that everything was more or less out in the open, ideal location or not, it was time.

"I love you, Hikari," he repeated. "I realize this is probably not the best time or place for me to tell you this, but then again, who knows might happen. I understand if you don't feel the same or if you just rather be friends or whatever, but I wanted you to know how I felt before it was too late." Takeru realized he was kind of rambling, so he stopped talking and sighed.

In the moment of silence that followed, Takeru began to feel like he had blown it completely. Perhaps he _should_ have gone with his first plan and tried to convince her that he hadn't said those three words.

"I love you too, Takeru."

He was such an idiot. Of course, she wouldn't…He cut off his own train of thought as Hikari's soft reply finally penetrated. "Really?" he asked.

Hikari laughed. "Is it really so hard to believe? I think I've loved you for a long time, Takeru, but I just never really realized it before. But then you were gone. And you gave us no indication that we would be seeing you any time soon. But I don't think I ever stopped loving you."

Takeru smiled. This was the best response he could have hoped for. "You were the main reason I wanted to come back to Japan. I know I've loved you for a long time. When I moved away, you were my biggest 'what if'." He sighed again. "I guess we only have one problem left."

"What? How we're stuck in the Dark Ocean, running for our lives, and quite possibly will soon be kidnapped by evil Digimon?"

Takeru paused. "Well, that too. But that wasn't what I was thinking of. I was wondering how in the world I'm going to tell Taichi."

Hikari laughed. "If that's your biggest problem, I don't think you'll have much to worry about. I'm sure Taichi will be fine."

"I don't know," Takeru said, skeptically. "I seem to recall almost getting a nice punch to the face the first time I encountered Taichi again."

Hikari laughed even harder. "I almost forgot about that," she gasped between breaths.

Takeru reached out and touched her cheek. "He's very protective of you," Takeru said, his tone serious. "I can understand that."

She frowned. "Despite what you two believe, I _can_ take care of myself."

He smiled at her. "Like with the Vilemon earlier?"

Hikari's lips pursed. "Well, except for that one time."

Takeru's smile just grew wider. "Or with Myotismon? Or the Dark Ocean? Or—" Hikari cut him by putting her fingers against his lips.

"So, there are times when I need help," she consented. "That doesn't mean I can't think for myself or know what I want. Taichi will just have to understand that."

Takeru placed his forehead on hers. "So you agree to be the one to tell him?" he asked.

"Fine, you big baby," she replied.

Takeru's chuckle was low and soft. "That's all I wanted," he said. He pulled her closer until their lips were less than an inch apart. He paused just a moment, but when she didn't protest, he covered her lips with his own, just briefly. He smiled and pulled back. Hikari laid her head on his shoulder. It was a few minutes later that he heard her soft even breathing and knew that she was asleep. He was going to stay awake. He had to be vigilant and make sure Hikari was protected…

* * *

Takeru startled awake and looked around at his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that Hikari was no longer sleeping on him nor was she anywhere in the near vicinity. The second thing was the he was not under the tree where he supposed he had fallen asleep. He was in fact in a room that happened to be a small, square room with no windows and only one door. He assumed this is sort what prison was like, considering he had no real personal experience with it. He checked a saw that he still had his D-3, not that it would do him much good without Patamon.

"Well, it could be worse," he said out loud to no one in particular. The door opened and when he saw who was on the other side, all he could manage was a resigned sigh as he muttered, "I really need to listen to Jyou more often."

* * *

When Hikari woke up, her head was resting on something softer than what she had fallen asleep on. She opened her eyes slowly and realized that she was laying on a pillow rather than Takeru's shoulder. She sat up abruptly, panic starting to set in when a quick glance about the room revealed that Takeru was not even in this room with her. She slid off the bed and ran to the nearest door. She found it to be locked, which was what she was sort of expecting, given that she had come to the conclusion that sometime while she and Takeru were sleeping, they had been found by whoever was after them.

She wanted to panic. Takeru was not here. She hadn't expected that. She hadn't expected that they would be separated when they were taken. She shuddered when she thought about those shadow creatures she had encountered the last time she was here. They had droned her name and wanted her for their master or something. She had tried not to think of that day for so long. She wondered if they had been the ones to bring her here.

She explored the small room and didn't find very much. Besides the bed, there was some sort of small vanity against one wall. There was one window, which she tried to open, but to no avail. It was shut tight. There was nothing else in the small room. She was trapped. She checked and found that she still had her D-3, which she was thankful for. Though without Gatomon, she really didn't know what use the device had for her at the moment. She pulled it out and tried to see if she could find Takeru. She picked up his signal from somewhere probably in the building she was in. Or at least that's where his D-3 was. Hopefully since they didn't take hers, they hadn't taken his either. She hoped that Takeru was safe, wherever he was.

She had just sat back down on the bed, when the door opened. Two of the shadow creatures she had met on her first trip here were standing in the doorway. She scooted back, as far away from them as she could get and tried to settle the panic that was once again threatening to overcome her. "Hikari…" they intoned together, saying her name in that same wispy, haunting voices that she remembered. "Come…Master calls for you…"

Hikari wanted to run away. She never saw this 'Master' that the shadow creatures had told her of during their first encounter, and she was fairly certain that she did not want to see who it was. The creatures slinked over to where she was and grabbed her arms. Their touch was like cold fire on her skin. They pulled her to her feet and, though she tried to fight it, they dragged her from the room.

They took her to a larger room with a pedestal in the middle of it. It looked like it had a bowl of water resting on the top of it. Suddenly she felt hope rise in her again when she heard Takeru's voice. From another one of the doors in the room, he appeared, also being dragged by some of the shadow creatures, protesting much more than she had. "Takeru!" she exclaimed. She would have run to him if the two shadow creatures hadn't held her back. He turned his head toward her and smiled when he saw her. He tried to wrench free from his captors, but was unsuccessful. He appeared to be fine from what she could see which she was grateful for.

"Are you alright, Hikari?" he called, still trying to pull himself free. She nodded and was about to ask the same thing, when a familiar laugh echoed around the room. She gasped and wondered how she could not have remembered that _he_ was here. She had forgotten that they had sent him here to the Dark Ocean. His echoing words of revenge and return had long since been lost to a forgotten memory. "Daemon," she heard Takeru say in a dark tone.

Daemon appeared from the shadows. "Welcome, Digidestined, to the Dark World," he said.

"What do you want, Daemon?" Takeru asked.

"It's really quite simple," Daemon said. "I want the destruction of Hope and Light. They are the only thing keeping me from returning to the Digital World. And as you two are the chosen conduits of those powers, it is you I must destroy to accomplish this. Courage. Friendship. Love. Sincerity. Knowledge. Reliability. They are strong, it's true. Together, you might even have the power to stop me. But these Crests can be easier to overcome. But Hope and Light…you are an entirely different matter because you are more closely tied than the others. I thought I could destroy Hope when he was alone, but I found that I still could not destroy him while he was under the protection of Light. And I knew that I could not destroy Light while she was under the protection of Hope. I knew then that I had to separate you in a more permanent way so that I could destroy you. It took me a long time, but I finally figured out the way to do it. And it's all thanks to my friend here, Dragomon."

A larger Digimon Hikari had never seen before slithered into the room. It looked like a cross between an octopus and a bat. Hikari noticed that the shadow creatures seemed to shrink back a little from him as he entered the room. Dragomon must have been the Master they had told her about before. It had to be the Master that they wanted to her help to defeat and warned that he would come for her. She thought she had been safe when nothing ever happened.

She hated when she was wrong.


	10. Light

"I think I might have figured out a way in."

Taichi, along with the rest of the Digidestined, looked at Ken as he quietly made this announcement. Ken looked down shyly and continued, "My D-3 was created in the Dark Ocean, and I did manage to open a portal to the Dark World to send Daemon there before. I think it might be possible to open a door using my D-3."

"It is a viable possibility," Koushiro said. "I hesitated to bring it up before due to…" He trailed off, not finishing his sentence. Taichi understood what he was going to say. There was sort of an unspoken rule in the Digidestined not to bring up any of the bad things that Ken did as the Digimon Emperor.

But Hikari was in danger and Taichi didn't have time to be tactful. "Let's try it."

It was disappointing when the D-3 just opened a portal to the Digital World. Ken tried again, but with no luck. He shrugged helplessly and Mimi placed a hand on his shoulder. "It was a good idea and at least you tried something," she said comfortingly.

"I believe our best course of action at this point would be to return to the Digital World," Koushiro put in. "From what I've gathered, other than Takeru and Hikari, everyone else has entered the Dark World from there. I would like to perhaps brainstorm some ideas with Gennai as well."

So it was that the Digidestined entered the Digital World again in search of their lost companions.

* * *

Takeru was not having the best day in his life. First, he had awoken in a cell away from Hikari. Then shadow creatures had dragged him from the same cell to a room where he had found out that they had indeed not seen the last of Daemon. Now, some strange unknown Digimon Daemon had called Dragomon was trying to turn his new girlfriend (he hoped—they hadn't really had time to discuss the particulars yet) evil so that her Light could no longer protect him and the Digital World.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to stand here and let that happen.

Daemon had rattled on about how Dragomon had spent so much time in the Dark World that he had absorbed all this dark energy and had figured out a way to channel it into another person or being, hence the creation of the shadow creatures in this realm that were currently holding his arms. Takeru hadn't honestly been listening all that well. He had been too focused on trying to think of some way to escape. But when Dragomon had turned his attention to Hikari and grabbed her around the neck with one of those creepy tentacles, Takeru's focus instantly shifted from escaping to saving Hikari.

He remembered that just before they were taken to this sad world, he may or may not have produced some kind of golden shield to protect her before, but he had been so desperate to protect her had hadn't really bothered about thinking and it had just sort of happened. He understood that Hikari was in danger now, just like before, but he was missing that desperation. He locked his eyes on Hikari and concentrated. "Come on, Takeru," he muttered to himself. A golden light began to emit from him, just like it had in France when he had come under attack by the dark powers. The shadow creatures shrieked and backed away from him. The moment they let go of his arms, he set off at a run towards Hikari, not even bothering to wonder how or why he was glowing. If it got him to Hikari, he didn't care. The shadow creatures around Hikari shrieked and backed away when he approached, just like that others had. Takeru, hardly knowing what he was doing, grabbed the tentacle around Hikari's neck and the tentacle let go and whipped away, just like the shadow creatures. "Hikari!" he cried, minutely noticing that the glow around him was fading.

For a moment, her eyes were glazed and unseeing, but she blinked and life came back into them. "Takeru?" she asked. "What happened?" Takeru was about to explain when Hikari, pointing behind him, called out, "Look out!" and lifted her hand. Takeru turned around in time to see pink light burst from Hikari's hand and attack Dragomon's tentacle which had been coming back to attack him. When the light hit it, the tentacle dissolved into bits, something like they had seen destroyed Digimon burst into when they were defeated. Hikari pulled her hand back and looked at it like she had never seen it before. "What did I just do?" she asked.

Takeru, still running on instinct and adrenaline, waved his arms around in front of them and the golden shield appeared around them again, this time like a bubble. He vaguely heard Daemon yelling in the background, something about failure and idiocy, but he ignored it. He grabbed Hikari's hands as she looked around at the shield around them. "What is happening to us, Takeru?" she asked and Takeru could hear the chord of fear in her voice.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I think we should worry about it later. I'm sure Koushiro has a theory, and we can ask him. I think right now that we need to worry about getting out of here because I have no idea how long this shield thing is going to last."

"**Evil Inferno**!" Takeru watched in a mix of horror and amazement as Daemon attack's destroyed Dragomon.

"Any ideas?" Hikari asked and he looked to see the same look on her face as she watched the destruction.

"When I came to save you, I opened a portal to this world by focusing on you and you reached back out to me," Takeru hastily explained the idea he had come up with during Daemon's monologue that he hadn't been listening to. "I think if we just focus on those we care about most in the real world and the Digital World than we might be able to open another portal."

"Let's try it," Hikari agreed. They clasped hands and Takeru began to think of the other Digidestined and concentrated on Yamato and Patamon. He could only assume that Hikari was probably doing the same with Taichi and Gatomon. A light surrounded them, a mixture of gold and pink.

"Get them!" he heard Daemon scream.

* * *

Yamato watched with the other Digidestined as a pillar of white light shot up to the sky not far from where they stood. It disappeared, but then they heard a giant explosion and smoke appear right where the light had been.

"Patamon Digivolve to…Angemon!"

"Angemon Digivolve to…MagnaAngemon!"

"Gatomon Digivolve to…Angewomon!"

Yamato blinked in confusion at the two Digimon as they Digivolved. Apparently he was not the only one to be confused as Koushiro said, "But that's impossible. They shouldn't be able to Digivolve without Takeru and Hikari being within a reasonable distance."

"The light!" Ken called out. "Do you think—"

He didn't finish his sentence, but Yamato looked at Taichi, who was looking right back. He could tell his best friend was having the same line of thought he was. At the same time, the two of them starting running toward where they saw the light and smoke come from. "Yamato! Taichi!" Sora called after them.

"Wait up, Taichi!" Agumon called to his partner.

"Yamato!" Gabumon called. The two Digimon soon caught up with their partners and ran with them. Yamato glanced up to see the two Angel Digimon flying in front of them. Soon they were out of sight. Yamato didn't want to hope, but somewhere deep inside he couldn't help himself. Then he had to admonish himself. Takeru would have been disappointed in him to have ever given up hope in the first place. He heard the rest of the Digidestined running behind them.

"**Darkness Wave**!"

"**Deep Sorrow**!"

"**Dark Cloud**!"

"**Heaven's Charm**!"

"**Gate of Destiny**!"

The sounds of battle could be heard ahead. More explosions were heard as the Digimon fought. As they got closer, Yamato could see two figures running toward them, being chased by three Digimon that MagnaAngemon and Angewomon were trying to fight off. "Takeru!" he called out, recognizing his brother.

"Hikari!" Taichi called out almost at the same time.

Yamato watched as LadyDevimon slipped past the two Angel Digimon and sent an attack toward Takeru and Hikari. "Look out!" he called to them, pointing behind them.

Takeru reacted to his warning almost instantly, though Yamato almost could not believe what happened. Yamato had expected for him to jump out of the way or duck, but Takeru pulled Hikari behind him as he turned around and seemed to swing his arm at the attack. A golden shield appeared and blocked the attack.

"Gabumon, Digivolve!" he told his partner quickly. Apparently he wasn't the only one with that idea as, in the glow of their Digivices, all the Digimon Digivolved. WereGarurumon and MetalGreymon were the first to join the fray, but it wasn't long before Lilymon, Zudamon, MegaKabuterimon, Garudamon, Paildramon, Aquilamon, and Ankylomon joined the fight. It wasn't long until the three Digimon they faced decided that they were definitely outnumbered.

As their Digimon fought, the Digidestined followed Yamato and Taichi to where Takeru and Hikari were standing. Yamato did a quick once over his brother and Hikari. Their clothes were a mess and there was a nasty red mark around Hikari's neck, but other than some scrapes and scratches, they looked like they were fine. His brother practically ignored him as Takeru took Hikari's face with his hands. "Are you alright?" he heard Takeru ask her softly. Hikari mumbled that she was fine, but then something odd happened.

Mimi let out a high-pitched squeal. Yamato turned his attention away from his brother for a moment. He thought that they were being attacked again. He looked to see Mimi jumping up and down, holding onto Sora's arm. She was saying, rather loudly, "I told you so. Don't they make just THE cutest couple?"

Yamato whipped his head back around to Takeru and Hikari, who looked a little bit like they just realized that there were other people there. Takeru dropped his hands from Hikari's face. Hikari was blushing so much that her face was a brighter pink than her shirt. Takeru looked a little embarrassed, but Yamato could also see something akin to a smug grin on his face. Yamato couldn't help but smile back, since he had thought this was going to happen for a while now. Takeru cleared his throat and said, rather unnecessarily, "We escaped."

Taichi wretched his sister away from Takeru and drowned her in his embrace. "I've been so worried."

"Sorry, Taichi," she said, when he let her go. "I'll be sure to mention to the next Digimon that kidnaps me to send you a note."

Yamato stepped up to his brother, who was glancing at Taichi a little nervously. Yamato placed a hand on his brother's shoulder (a little weird now since Takeru was slightly taller than him), and whispered, "I don't think he'll deck you."

"That's reassuring, coming from you," Takeru said, rolling his eyes.

"I'm glad you're alright, Takeru," Yamato said, squeezing his shoulder slightly.

"You didn't tell Mom I was gone, did you?" Takeru asked, nervously.

"We were only going to tell them if we couldn't find you in a few days," Yamato said. "She doesn't know a thing."

Takeru gave a relieved sigh. "That's good," he said. "I'd hate for her to worry."

The siblings were surrounded by the rest of the Digidestined, who also wanted to share their relief and gratitude that Takeru and Hikari were safe and back. There was a little bit of good-natured teasing on Takeru and Hikari's new relationship status from the others but all of them, even Daisuke, who Yamato (along with the rest of the group) was aware had some sort of crush on Hikari before, seemed to be happy for the two of them.

When Koushiro asked how they had escaped, Takeru and Hikari relayed the story about Daemon and Dragomon. Yamato could feel Taichi tense next to him when Takeru told them how Dragomon wrapped his tentacle around Hikari and Hikari rubbed the red mark around her neck. Both of them seemed to stumble a bit over the next part when they describe their actual escape. Koushiro had mentioned the possibility before that Hikari and Takeru could have some sort of special powers that they didn't know about, but to have it confirmed was something else entirely. Yamato recalled the golden shield that seemed to appear out of nowhere when he had called his warning to Takeru earlier.

Koushiro began to talk when Takeru and Hikari finished their tale. "I've been in contact with Gennai and I have explained my theories. Gennai said that somewhat like the clothes the younger generation got when they entered the Digital World, these powers are something like a Digital manifestation of Takeru and Hikari and their Crests. The Crests of Hope and Light are different from the rest of ours, as you've heard when you talked to Gennai and Azulongmon. Gennai told me that you are most likely only able to exhibit these powers in the Digital World and not in our world. The Dark World is something like a shadow version of the Digital World, which is why I assume you are able to use them there as well."

"But I glowed in France," Takeru pointed out. "If we can only use them in the Digital World, how was I able to use them there?"

"I asked Gennai the same question," Koushiro said. "He said that because you were being attack from the Dark World, there had to be some sort of connection there. You simply had to use that same connection to access the power, kind of like using someone else's wireless internet. We've also determined that Takeru's powers lean towards protection, with that golden shield and Hikari's are more offensive, like when she attack Dragomon."

"This is crazy," Jyou said, placing his hand on his forehead and Yamato was in line to agree with him.

"Well this is the Digital World," Gomamon pointed.

"Yeah, it's like the epitome of crazy," Sora said.

"Crazy or not, I'd rather not stand around here and talk about it," Takeru said. "In case you don't remember, we spent the last day in the woods and as prisoners. I'd really just rather get home and sleep in my bed and talk about this later."

The Digidestined all agreed and went back to the real world, leaving the Digimon (other than Patamon and Gatomon, who were too happy to have their partners back and didn't want them out of their sight just yet) in the Digital World, thinking that the threat was probably over for now.

* * *

Gatomon flicked her tail as she watched Hikari sleep. Her parents had made a fuss when Taichi brought her back. He had explained to their parents that everything was fine and it was safe for Hikari to return home. He had left and Hikari had showered, ate, and immediately fell into bed. It was strange to think of a human having powers like a Digimon, but since meeting Hikari and becoming part of the Digidestined team, Gatomon had sort of learned to accept all the weird things that happened around these kids. They had, after all, managed to pull themselves back together from data when Apocalymon had practically destroyed them. And it wasn't like this was the first time Hikari had showed that she had special powers. Gatomon hadn't been expecting the same about Takeru, but she supposed it made sense. Gatomon looked out the window, where the sun was slowly sinking below the horizon. She sighed. With any luck, it was all over.

* * *

Patamon curled up right next to Takeru's head as his partner slept. Takeru's father hadn't been home when Yamato had dropped them off at the apartment. Yamato offered to stay with Takeru, but he just shrugged him off and explained that he was just going to crash, since he was exhausted. Patamon remembered the power he had felt when Hikari had glowed with Light when they were fighting Machinedramon. To hear that Takeru now had similar powers in the Digital World made him feel like they could do anything. Patamon looked on the desk where the picture of Takeru and Hikari in New York was sitting and smiled, content to have his partner back again.

* * *

The Digidestined of Knowledge snoozed during the night, completely oblivious to the small icon of his laptop that blinked rapidly, almost as if it knew the urgency of the message it contained.


	11. Devour

Koushiro stared at his computer screen, his mouth gaping open after reading an email from Gennai that had arrived sometime during the night. He should have known. He should have realized that their troubles with the Digital World could not have been that easy to fix. With deft fingers, he quickly sent out an email of his own to the Digidestined, sending word to meet at Taichi's and Yamato's apartment as soon as possible. He closed the lid of his laptop and hooked the computer into his backpack. He slung the whole thing over his shoulder and quickly calculated the fastest route to the apartment. He left his apartment, hoping they still had time.

* * *

"Hikari, dear, your friends are here to see you," her mother called through her bedroom door.

Hikari closed the photo album of old pictures of her and Takeru she had been looking through and traded glances with Gatomon. She had been feeling nostalgic this morning when her eyes fell upon the long forgotten photo album on her shelf. She sighed softly, as she remembered that her school friends promised to drop by from time to time during the summer. After what had happened to her in the last couple of days, she wasn't sure she was quite up to seeing them. She really liked her school friends a lot, but she didn't think they would quite understand her wanting to recuperate from being kidnapped by evil digital monsters. They would probably think she was insane if she ever tried to explain it.

She stood up anyway and opened the door. She looked down the hallway and was delightfully surprised to see Sora and Mimi standing in the entryway. She smiled and asked, "What are you doing here?" She walked toward them as Gatomon plotted alongside her.

"We figured with all that's happened recently, you could use a girls' day out," Mimi said, smiling broadly.

"Miyako would have come too, but she already had plans with Ken today," Sora added.

Hikari smiled. Sora and Mimi were like sisters to her and she knew she would love to spend the day with them, especially since they quite understood about being kidnapped by evil digital monsters. She turned to her mother and asked, "May I go, Mom?"

Her mother smiled. "Of course, dear. Just don't stay out too late."

Hikari nodded. "Just let me grab my bag," she said. She raced back to her room and grabbed her D-3 and purse off the desk. She ran back to the door where Sora and Mimi were still waiting. As she slipped on her shoes, she called good-bye to her mother and left with Gatomon and the girls.

* * *

A D-Terminal sat forgotten on Hikari's desk. It blinked, indicating an incoming message.

* * *

Koushiro pounded on the door to boys' apartment. "Taichi! Yamato!" he called through the door. When there was no answer, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed their number. It wasn't unlikely that the two of them were asleep and just unwilling to wake up and answer the door. There was no answer on the phone either. He forced himself not to panic. He called the Yagami household, where Mrs. Yagami answered the phone. "Hello, Mrs. Yagami. This is Koushiro Izumi," he said politely, relieved that he managed to keep any sort of panic from his voice. "Is Hikari home?"

"Why no, Koushiro," she said. "She just left with Mimi and Sora a few minutes ago."

"Do you happen to know where Taichi is?" Koushiro asked. "I'm at his house now, and neither he nor Yamato seem to be home. I was supposed to help them with their computer today." Inwardly he cringed for the lie, but Koushiro knew how much they hated getting their parents involved with Digital World things.

"I don't," she said. "But you might want to try at the soccer fields near the elementary school. I know he and Daisuke help the kids there some days."

Koushiro wanted to hit himself. He should have thought of the soccer fields. He thanked Mrs. Yagami before hanging up the phone. He began running to the soccer fields, hoping to find their leader there.

* * *

Takeru had opened the door that morning and had been surprised to find Yamato at his door. Yamato took his brother out to breakfast and they just talked. They were now sitting in the park. Patamon was sitting in Takeru's lap, dozing softly.

"I don't think it's over," Takeru said, suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Yamato asked.

"The prophecy," Takeru clarified. "I don't think we're through with it just yet." He smiled. "After all, when have our troubles with the Digital World ever been over so quickly or so easily?" He paused. "Well, relatively easily, in any case. We didn't even really have to fight anyone, but those three Ultimates. I don't think Daemon is going to give up so easily. Not after he spent six years working on getting his revenge on us."

"Though I wish you weren't, I think you are probably right," Yamato said. He sighed.

"What do you think the last line in the prophecy means?" Takeru asked. To be honest with himself, he really didn't want to think about 'Hope and Light's destruction'.

"I don't know."

"Hey, guys!"

Takeru and Yamato turned around and saw Sora, Mimi, and Hikari walking toward them. Mimi was waving (it had been her that had called out). The girls came over and the group exchanged pleasantries for a moment. Hikari said that Gatomon had gone home to have her daily nap. A few minutes late, Mimi unexpectedly grabbed Sora and Yamato's arms and said, "Why don't you escort Hikari home, Takeru? It's more out of our way then it is yours."

"Uh…sure," Takeru said, a little surprised at first by Mimi's abruptness, but then he smiled when he remembered her reaction yesterday. "You know, it's not really—"

Mimi cut him off by smiling sweetly and saying, "Then we'll see you later!" She grabbed Patamon and handed him to Yamato before she waved and pulled Yamato and Sora away, somewhat against their will as neither had quite agreed to this plan, but Mimi hadn't really given them any chance to give their opinion in edgewise.

"I think we've just been set up," Takeru commented as he watched the others walk away.

"I think Mimi is way more excited about us being together than we are," Hikari said. She laughed a little. "Do you know how many hints she's being dropping these last three months?"

"Really?" Takeru asked. "You should have said something. Then we wouldn't have had to have that heart to heart in the Dark World."

Hikari rolled her eyes. "And when exactly was I supposed to bring it up? Besides, you're the one who told me that you've loved me for years. _You_ could have mentioned something."

"You're right," Takeru said and he was pretty sure that he caught Hikari off guard when her mouth gaped open. He pulled her closer and grinned. "We should make up for lost time."

Now Hikari was grinning to. "If I didn't know any better, you're just looking for an excuse to kiss me."

Takeru's grin widened. "Is it working?" he teased.

Hikari stood up on her tiptoes and whispered into his ear. "You've got to catch me first." She slipped out of his arms and began to run away.

Takeru's mouth gaped open in indignation for a moment before he chased after her.

* * *

Koushiro had managed to get a hold of Jyou, Iori, and Ken, who was with Miyako. They said they had received his message and were on the way to the apartment. Koushiro told them to wait there because he was on his way to find Taichi. Hopefully he wouldn't be much longer. He was coming onto the soccer fields soon.

* * *

"We should not be doing this," Yamato said as he stood behind Sora and Mimi with Patamon in his arms.

"Doing what?" Patamon asked, waking up slowly. He looked around. "Where's Takeru?"

"Hush, Yamato," Mimi said. She sighed lovingly. "They are just too cute. Don't you think so, Sora?"

"I kind of have to agree with Yamato on this one, Mimi," Sora said. "What's the point of setting them up to be alone if you're just going to spy on them?"

Mimi huffed and turned away to look at Yamato and Sora. "You guys are no fun," she said. She sighed dramatically. "We'll go if you're going to be that way." She began to walk away. Sora caught up with her.

Yamato looked around the corner to watch his little brother chasing Hikari around the park. "Why is Takeru chasing Hikari?" Patamon asked.

"Who knows?" Yamato said. He looked down at the little Digimon and suddenly remembered what Takeru said when he thought it wasn't over. "Patamon, could you go watch Takeru for me, but be kind of sneaky about it? You know, don't let him see you?"

"But why?" Patamon asked.

"Takeru and Hikari deserve some time alone together, you know," Yamato said. "But I don't want to leave them unprotected."

Patamon smiled. "Okay!" The little Digimon flew away toward the park and Yamato sighed in relief knowing that he would be there to look after Takeru. He jogged to catch up with the girls.

* * *

Koushiro bent over, gasping a bit for air. He had finally gotten to the soccer fields. He looked up and sighed in relief when he saw Taichi's signature hair across the field. "Taichi!" he yelled, as soon as he had breath enough to manage it.

Taichi looked over at him and waved. He turned to Daisuke next to him and started talking to him, pointing to Koushiro. The two of them ran over to Koushiro. "Hey, Koushiro," Taichi said. "What's up?"

Koushiro placed a hand on Taichi's shoulder. "It's Daemon," he said. "He's destroying the Digital World."

* * *

Takeru finally caught Hikari in his arms. When he did, she began to laugh giddily, which put a smile on his face. Together they sat down on the grass, exhausted after their childish chase. Takeru grinned to himself. It may have been childish, but he hardly cared. At last, Hikari was his. Peace had settled upon the world for now and he could finally have a day with her with no one watching over their shoulders.

"What are you grinning about?" Hikari asked, as she leaned her elbow on her knees and rest her head in her hand to look at him.

Takeru leaned closer to her. "The fact that I believe I won this little game," he said with a smug grin.

"Hmm," Hikari said with a contemplative look on her face. "You know, when you grin like that, you remind me of Yamato. He had that same grin after he and Sora started going out. It drove Taichi crazy, really. My brother didn't mind really that he was dating Sora, but he said Yamato didn't have to seem smug about it."

Takeru laughed and laid back on the grass. "You know, if you don't want me to kiss you, you could have just said so, instead of blatantly changing the subject," he said as he smiled at her. "I'll be with you forever, Hikari, so we've got time." Hikari's eyes went wide and she whipped her head away so that Takeru couldn't see her face. Takeru sat back up, worried that he had said something wrong. "Hikari?" he ventured softly as he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Since he was thinking something was just terribly wrong and he was probably going to have to buy flowers (some of Yamato's advice from this morning's talk), it came as somewhat a surprise to him when Hikari turned her head back around quickly, grabbed Takeru's face in her hands, and kissed him soundly on the lips. Before his mind had a chance to process what was happening, she pulled away and locked his gaze in her own. "Takeru," she said. "It is so very hard to keep teasing you when you are being so sweet and adorable."

Takeru smiled and pulled her back to him to kiss her again. He rested his forehead on hers and said, in a teasing tone, "So you think I'm sweet and adorable?"

Hikari huffed in frustration and cuffed him gently on the arm as she turned away from him. Takeru just began to laugh again. "Stop being incorrigible!" Hikari said.

"But I do it adorably, don't you agree?"

Hikari rolled her eyes at him and laid back on the grass like Takeru had done minutes earlier. "You're lucky I love you so much," she said with a hint of warning in her voice.

Takeru's smile was genuine as he looked down at her. "Yes, I am," he said simply because he knew that it was everything to him.

* * *

"What do you mean Daemon's destroying the Digital World?" Taichi asked the red-faced Koushiro. "I thought he was still in the Dark Ocean. I thought we were finished."

Koushiro shook his head. "Gennai emailed me, though it was in the middle of the night and I didn't read it until this morning. He hasn't emailed me again, so I have no knowledge of the extent of the damage that has occurred now—"

"Get to the point, Koushiro," Taichi reminded him somewhat impatiently.

"Sorry," Koushiro muttered. "From what Gennai has figured, Daemon used the portal that Takeru and Hikari created between the Dark World and the Digital World to escape before it closed. I don't know why he waited for us to leave before he attacked, but he and his minions are destroying the Digital World. And I mean, _destroying_. As near as they can tell, Daemon doesn't have a target at all. He's just randomly destroying things. File Island is gone already and who knows what else since then. And I think it's all still part of the prophecy. _'The Master destroyed, they shall lead the Demon to devour._' Takeru and Hikari told us that Daemon destroyed Dragomon, who they said was the Master of the Dark World. And they did sort of lead Daemon out since he used their portal."

Taichi's fist clenched. To be honest, he hadn't really remembered that part of the prophecy. The line that had played in his mind constantly these last three months was the final line: _Saving the worlds will require Light and Hope's destruction_. Try as he could not to think about what that could mean, he couldn't help but think that it meant losing Hikari, which he certainly did not want to happen.

"We have to stop him," Daisuke said emphatically.

"That's why I've been running around trying to find you," Koushiro said. "Everyone should be at your apartment now, hopefully. At least everyone who got my message."

"Let's go!" Daisuke said shooting his fist into the air.

Taichi looked at the kids playing soccer behind him. He knew they were all in danger now. When things happened in the Digital World, it was never very long before they affected the real world. Sometimes, Taichi wanted to be nothing more than one of those ignorant kids, never knowing anything about coming close to losing a friend or even their own life. Taichi remembered when Takeru told them what happened in France, how he said that they knew nothing about being normal kids, but Taichi didn't quite agree. He remembered the time when Greymon had receded to the depths of his memory and all Taichi cared about was Hikari, soccer, and not having Sora mad at him for something or another.

"Taichi?" he heard Koushiro ask tentatively.

He was a Digidestined. He would protect his family, his friends, and the worlds, not only because there was no one else and not only because he was chosen to, but also because he _wanted_ to. He was not one of those ignorant people who could ignore the threat to the people they cared about. He knew the threat and knew that there was something he could do about it.

"Let's go," Taichi said, echoing Daisuke's words, but his voice was low and serious.

* * *

Takeru heard the screaming and somehow instinctively knew his peaceful afternoon was over. He and Hikari seemed to rise as one. Not really sure what he could do without a Digimon and a lack of the ability to use his powers in the real world, it didn't seem to stop him from running towards where everyone seemed to be running from. Hikari was close behind him. "Well, this is just perfect," he muttered when they finally reached the scene.

"**Fire Blast**!"

"Do you have your D-Terminal?" Takeru asked Hikari as they watched the DarkTyrannomon destroy some car Takeru could only pray the occupants had evacuated.

Hikari shook her head. "I forgot it at my home this morning," she said. "I'm guessing this means you don't have yours either."

"No," Takeru said. "Yamato took me by surprise this morning. I didn't grab much of anything to be honest."

"Of all the times for Gatomon to decide she needs beauty sleep," Hikari muttered. "What should we do?"

"Hope," Takeru said. He looked around and saw that a news van had arrived in the now mostly deserted street. "Come on." He grabbed Hikari's hand and started to run towards the news van, which a cameraman and a news reporter had quickly climbed out of and began rolling. He noted with mild interest that the news station was not the one his father worked at. Hopefully his father had enough sense not to send someone close into what his father probably knew was a Digimon attack. In any case, he had to get them to leave for their own safety. There was no telling what a Digimon in the real world was going to do.

"…unknown whether they are connected," the news reporter said as Takeru caught the tail end of what she was saying.

He grabbed her arm and said, "You've got to get out of here!" He barely noticed the cameraman shifting slightly to catch him and Hikari in the video.

"And who might you be, young man? Do you know anything about this monster attack?" the reporter asked.

"It doesn't matter if we know anything or not," Hikari said to her. "You're in great danger here. You really need to leave before you get hurt."

Takeru had turned to watch the DarkTyrannomon as Hikari tried to get the reporter and the cameraman to leave. The Digimon hadn't noticed them quite yet, but he knew it was only a matter of time. Finally, DarkTyrannomon turned his gaze to them. "He's going to attack!" Takeru exclaimed to them, turning back to the reporter. "Go!" Not for the first time, Takeru desperately wished that Patamon was here.

"Takeru, look at your D-3!" Hikari exclaimed.

Takeru pulled his D-3 where had hooked it onto his shorts. It was glowing slightly. "Patamon?" he said softly.

"**Fire Blast**!"

"**Angel Staff**!"

Angemon was spinning his staff as he flew in front of the other Digimon and blocked his attack.

"I'm not sure what is going on," he heard the reporter saying behind them. "But it appears that an angel has appeared and is now fighting the dinosaur-like monster."

Takeru didn't bother to stay and listen to her. He grabbed Hikari hand and began to run to his partner. The reporter called after them, but Takeru didn't listen. "Angemon!" he called out. "I thought you left with Yamato."

"Yamato didn't want to leave you two unprotected, so he asked me to look after you," Angemon replied, flying down close to them after stunning the DarkTyrannomon for the moment with his **Angel Rod** attack. "What should I do, Takeru?"

Takeru knew what Angemon was asking. Should they try and find a computer to send the Digimon back to the Digital World or should Angemon destroy the rampaging Digimon. He wanted to ask Hikari what she thought, but he didn't want to put the burden on her shoulders too. "There's no time," Takeru said. "He could be on the other side. Destroy him, Angemon." Hikari laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder as Angemon flew off to fight the other Digimon. Angemon released his powerful **Hand of Fate** attack, which obliterated DarkTyrannomon into digital bits. "Hopefully, he'll be born again in Primary Village," Takeru said, as Angemon flew back down to land next to them.

"There's no telling how much damage he could have done or how many people he could have hurt while we tried to find a computer," Hikari said.

"Hey! Kids!"

He and Hikari turned to find the reporter and her cameraman running towards them. Takeru quickly turned back to Angemon and asked, "Do you think you can carry both of us to Yamato's apartment, Angemon? I don't have my D-Terminal to turn you into Pegasusmon."

"Not a problem, Takeru," Angemon said as he picked up Takeru and Hikari in his arms. He took to the air just as the reporter reached them. She called questions after them, but Takeru could hardly hear her in the flapping of Angemon's wings.

* * *

"I'm not sure what just happened here, but it seems the threat may be over for now."

Yuuko Yagami stared in shock at the television screen. Around her feet was the remains of a ceramic bowl and cake batter she had dropped as she had watched her daughter and Takeru Takaishi appear on the screen. The picture cut back to the news station, as the news anchor said, "Thank you, Tachibana. If anyone has news about monster or knows the identities of the teenagers, please contact the station or your local law enforcement. It is still unknown if this attack has anything to do with the monster sightings of six or nine years ago, when these strange occurrences happened before. We will keep you updated of any new information."

"No," Yuuko said with a voice that bordered along breathlessness. "Hikari…Taichi…it's beginning all over again."


	12. Destruction

When Yamato saw Jyou, Iori, Ken, and Miyako standing outside his apartment door, all thoughts of following his little brother's lead and spending a nice peaceful day with his girlfriend were flung out of his mind. "What now?" he muttered despondently to no one in particular. He wasn't even sure he said it loud enough for Sora, who was standing right next to him, to hear.

Sora had apparently noticed the group and placed on hand on his arm lightly. "I'll go see if I can catch up with Mimi," she said before she turned around and went back to elevator to catch up with the girl they had parted with at the base of the apartment complex. "I'll be right back," she called before the elevator doors closed.

Yamato approached his door with a fair amount of trepidation as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. "Hey, guys," he ventured somewhat cheerfully, hoping that perhaps his friends might have just dropped by for a friendly chat. Given that most of the group was of the second generation Digidestined and he wasn't as particularly close to them as he was with his fellow originals, it was rather a foolish hope he realized moments after thinking it.

"Koushiro contacted us," Jyou said, which Yamato assumed was to be the explanation for their being there. "Gennai said there was trouble."

Yamato opened the door and wanted to mutter something about how there was always trouble. He held in the comment and instead asked, "And where is Koushiro now?"

"When he found that neither of you were home, he went to find Taichi. I'm assuming we are the ones Koushiro could contact on the phone," Ken said as they all walked into the apartment.

Yamato grimaced. He picked up his phone on the counter and sure enough saw that Koushiro had tried to call him a few half a dozen times. He had purposely left the instrument home that morning so that he and Takeru wouldn't be interrupted. He had rushed Takeru enough that he was fairly certain that his younger brother had left his D-Terminal at their father's apartment. In hindsight, he realized it was probably rather irrational of him to think that their troubles with the Digital World would be over so easily and quickly and he would be able to spend _one_ peaceful day with Takeru and Sora.

Taichi and Daisuke were probably at the soccer fields today and Taichi never could hear his phone ringing when he got into the game. Daisuke was likely the same way. Sora had confided in him on the way home that it was actually _Mimi_ who insisted they leave their phones behind for an uninterrupted girl's day out. So that at least explained the lack of the rest of the Digidestined.

The door opened as Sora let herself in with Mimi trailing behind her. "One day," he heard Mimi mutter as she walked past him. He could only assume she was having the same feelings that he was at the moment. Sora gave his hand a squeeze when she walked up to him. He reluctantly let go as the apartment phone began to ring. As he walked over to it, he realized belatedly that someone was going to have to go and get Takeru and Hikari at some point. He smirked suddenly and decided at once that he was going to _insist_ that Taichi be the one to do it. His protective best friend had to get used to idea of their younger siblings dating sooner or later and Yamato thought that it should really be sooner. He was inclined to believe that Takeru would feel the same. It didn't matter that Taichi had confided in him just last night that he was fine with Takeru dating Hikari, Yamato was still going to throw it in his face as much as possible. It was sort of his own way of telling Taichi 'I told you so', since Yamato had more or less been hinting at the possibility to Taichi for months now, which Taichi had more or less been ignoring whether deliberately or not.

Yamato was expecting the caller to be either Koushiro or Taichi, so he picked up the phone and rather casually said, "Hello?"

"Yamato, is that you?"

"Dad?" Yamato asked as he instantly became confused and alert. His father basically never called unless there was some kind of crisis.

"Turn on the television to channel 4," his father said.

Yamato was beginning to get a little worried at the tone his father was using. He conveyed the message to the others in the room. Iori, who had been sitting closest to the television, turned it on. Yamato almost dropped the phone at what he saw. "Perfect," he muttered. On the screen was a DarkTyrannomon destroying some car. He did drop the phone when suddenly Takeru and Hikari appeared in the camera's view. Takeru told the reporter that she had to leave. Hikari began explaining that it was dangerous. Takeru was looking at the Digimon and suddenly turned back to warn that he was attacking. Hikari gasped and exclaimed something about his D-3, which had begun to glow. Yamato suddenly wanted to collapse to the floor in relief that he had sent Patamon to look after them. Sure enough, seconds later Angemon appeared and blocked DarkTyrannonmon's attack. Takeru pulled Hikari away from the reporter and they ran to Angemon. They appeared to have a brief conversation before Angemon took wing and began to fight the other Digimon. It was a short fight as Angemon unleashed his powerful **Hand of Fate **and destroyed the DarkTyrannomon. The reporter began to run toward the pair but Angemon picked up Takeru and Hikari and flew off.

"As if we didn't have enough to worry about," he heard from behind him. Yamato turned and found Koushiro, Taichi, and Daisuke standing behind him. He hadn't even heard them come in since he had been so absorbed in watching what was on the television.

"What do you mean, Koushiro?" Daisuke asked.

"I would think that it would be rather obvious," Jyou said, answering the question before Koushiro. "Takeru and Hikari have just exposed themselves as Digidestined to the whole world. People may not know that's what they are, but they now know they have something to do with monster attacks." He paused as they all listened to the news anchor request for information anyone might have on Takeru and Hikari.

Almost as if on cue, he heard multiple cell phones beginning to ring. Taichi, Ken, Miyako, and Iori all looked at their phones. Yamato heard his own phone ringing on the counter. They looked around at each other. Taichi seemed to grit his teeth as he stared at whatever name was on that screen, but he finally silenced his phone and they all seemed to take their cue from him. The rest of them silenced the ringing. Taichi picked up Yamato's phone, gave the number a quick glance before doing the same. It was probably _not _Takeru who was calling then, Yamato concluded. Yamato was suddenly vaguely aware of a muffled voice in the silence. He looked down at his feet and hastily picked up the phone that he had dropped. "Dad?" he interrupted whatever his father had been saying. "Sorry."

"Do you have any idea what is going on?" his father asked.

"It's sort of a long story, but we're handling it. Everything is fine," Yamato said smoothly, not really sure that he believed that himself at this point. He was pretty sure the only reason he was not having a full blown panic attack was because his mind was simply refusing to think about that his brother may or may not now be a fugitive in the eyes of the world. "I'll tell you later. Bye!" he added hastily as he hung up the phone. He was not looking forward to that conversation. Instead he looked at Taichi and asked, "So what's going on?"

Taichi exchanged a brief glance with Koushiro. He surveyed the group solemnly and Yamato felt his heart sink. It must be really bad because it had been a long time since he had seen his friend look so serious. Finally, Taichi's gaze locked with his own and he knew that he had just lied to his father and whatever it was, everything was _not_ fine. "Daemon is destroying the Digital World," Taichi said without preamble.

"I couldn't figure out why before," Koushiro said into the silence that followed Taichi's ominous statement. "But I think I've figured it out now after seeing DarkTyrannomon. I think he's trying to destroy the balance of the Digital World, so that he can more easily access this world. That is how DarkTyrannomon came here in the first place. The barrier between our world and the Digital World is failing. This will probably not be the last Digimon we see in the real world."

"What do we do?" Jyou asked as he picked up the remote and muted the television which was replaying the report.

"We have to destroy Daemon," Daisuke said. "We can't let him come to the real world."

"He would definitely cause more damage than any other Digimon," Sora agreed.

"We can't leave this world unprotected from the Digimon that might cross over during the time it could take us to defeat him," Jyou pointed out. "We can't be in two places in once."

"Not to mention the problem with Takeru and Hikari," Miyako said.

"What problem?" Everyone looked to find Takeru and Hikari in the doorway with Patamon and Gatomon. Takeru smiled and said, "We would have been here sooner, but we stopped to pick up Gatomon." He sighed and continued, "We have something you guys should know."

"We know, Takeru," Yamato said not quite able to keep the disapproving tone out of his voice.

When Takeru and Hikari both gave him blank and confused looks, Yamato pointed to the television which was still playing the report. "Oh," Hikari breathed.

"You're lucky that I sent Patamon back to watch you," Yamato said. "What were you expecting to do against the Digimon without him?"

Yamato ignored the sharp looks he got from most of their friends. Apparently most of them had not realized that their two young friends had rushed into battle without knowing they had protection.

"Why did you guys rush in like that?" Ken asked.

Takeru actually scowled at them which was an expression Yamato didn't often see on his optimistic brother's face. "What were we supposed to do? I couldn't very well just walk away from them."

Yamato thought that was exactly the problem.

* * *

Hikari understood Takeru's reasons for rushing into save the reporter. She was sure she probably would have done the same thing had she seen them first, but the way her brother and Yamato were surveying her and Takeru you would have thought they had just committed some sort of heinous crime. "We didn't exactly think," she said softly as she lowered her eyes from her brother's gaze.

"Why did you destroy him?" Miyako asked and Hikari could tell she was raging mad.

"He was hurting people and destroying things," Takeru said. "I was not going to spend any more time trying to send him back."

"We'll deal with this problem later," Taichi said firmly when Miyako opened her mouth to say something else. Hikari was grateful to her brother, since she wasn't quite in the mood for a Miyako lecture at the moment. "We have to stop Daemon _now_."

"Daemon?" Takeru echoed. Hikari was equally confused, since they had left the Digimon locked in the Dark World.

"He used your portal from the Dark World to escape before it closed and is now destroying the balance between the two worlds," Koushiro explained. "Which explains why DarkTyrannomon appeared."

"_They shall lead the Demon to devour_," Hikari said with dread and guilt running her. "It's our fault," she added with a whisper.

Takeru laid a hand on her shoulder. "He was trying to kill us, Hikari," he said. "We didn't have a choice."

Hikari heard a couple of people gasp as he said this. "Daemon was trying to kill you?" Sora asked quietly into a shocked silence.

Despite everything, Hikari couldn't resist shooting an admonishing glare at Takeru. Both of them had conveniently left that part out of the story when they had repeated it to the rest of the group. They hadn't wanted to worry them about something that hadn't happened. Takeru's eyes widened when he seemed to realize what he had just said out loud. "It's not as bad as it sounds," Takeru said in what Hikari had to assume was some kind of attempt to repair the damage.

"No, it's probably worse," Jyou said.

"Why did he want to kill you?" Iori asked. There was concern in his voice, that Hikari could plainly hear, but she also thought that there was a hint of curiosity.

"He might have mentioned something about how he couldn't get back to the Digital World as long as we were alive because we were the Light and Hope of the Digital World," Takeru said really fast and Hikari got the feeling that he was trying to just glaze over the whole issue. "Obviously, he was wrong, since he was able to come through our portal. I wasn't honestly paying that much attention to what he was saying since I was trying to figure out how we were going to escape." He sighed.

"It's over and we're fine," Hikari finished for him. "Let's deal with the problem we have now."

Taichi met her gaze and she got the feeling that her brother wanted to say something more. "You're right," he said, surprising her a bit. "Koushiro, have you thought of a plan yet or are we just going to make this up as we go along, like we usually do?"

Hikari had to smile at that. That basically defined the way they had been fighting evil Digimon since their earliest days. Taichi had displayed some great insight during the battle with Piedmon, but in general her brother was not the best planner in the world, which is why he usually relied on Koushiro for these types of situations.

"Actually, I have come up with something," Koushiro said. "Now that there are Digimon that will probably come to the real world, we are going to have to split up our forces a bit. We are going to have to rely on the other Digidestined around the world to protect their own areas. I believe that Iori and Miyako should remain here in Japan to protect it from attacks, since their Digimon cannot reach Ultimate alone and we are going to need Takeru and Hikari in the Digital World. I also think that Daisuke and Ken should remain here with Imperialdramon since he can move the fastest and they would be able to help wherever they might be needed. You guys are basically going to be in charge of the safety of the world. Are you up for it?" Koushiro paused at looked at the two younger boys. They nodded, even Daisuke looking more serious than usual. "Great. Then the rest of us with go to the Digital World and fight Daemon. Hopefully, the eight of us will be enough."

* * *

Taichi thought the fight started out well enough. They had found Daemon and his lackeys easily enough. It hadn't really been so hard, just follow the explosions, really. Their Digimon Digivolved to their highest levels and began their attacks. WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon had flown after Daemon, while the other six stopped to take on his three Ultimates. With six against three, the fight had been in their favor from the beginning. Angewomon hand landed a **Celestial Arrow **dead on that destroyed LadyDevimon while she had been focused on Lillymon, while MagnaAngemon managed to swipe NeoDevimon with his sword as Garudamon held the dark Digimon. MegaKabuterimon hit Mephistomon with his **Horn Buster** at the same time as Zudomon landed a hit with his **Vulcan's Hammer** which destroyed him.

Finally all eight of them were ready to fight Daemon together, since their two Megas had only been buying time for the Ultimates to finish off the others (all part of Koushiro's plan; he hadn't wanted to take any chances).

"You're time is up, Daemon," Taichi yelled to the Dark Digimon. Taichi had no doubt that with all eight of them together nothing could stop them. "Attack!" he ordered the Digimon.

"With pleasure," WarGreymon said in reply. "**Terra Force**!"

The other Digimon joined in his attack. Daemon stopped most of the attacks, Taichi noticed with some dread, but Angewomon's **Celestial Arrow** managed to gaze the Digimon. To Taichi's somewhat surprise, Daemon just began to laugh. "So you want to play rough, do you?" He continued to laugh maniacally as a dark cloud seemed to surround him.

"This is not good," he heard Hikari mutter beside him.

"All that dark energy," Takeru added.

"Koushiro?" Taichi asked.

"Just a minute," Koushiro said as he typed furiously on his laptop. Taichi watched as Koushiro's face paled by whatever snippet of knowledge his computer seemed to tell him. "He's Digivolving," he said with a fair amount of disbelief and shock in his voice.

"He's a Mega!" Taichi countered. "He can't Digivolve!"

Just then the dark cloud around Daemon disappeared and Taichi couldn't help but feel a little bit of horror at what he saw. Daemon was bigger than he had been in his robed form, which incidentally was gone. He was almost completely black except for his clawed hands and feet and the giant ominously blue clawed wings that sprouted from his back. "It's true that normally I wouldn't be able to Digivolve," he cowed from above them. "But thanks to all the Dark Energy I attained from my long stay in the Dark World, I have surpassed all Digimon." He cackled again.

"That is getting on my nerves," Taichi muttered. "Don't give up," he called out to the Digimon.

The Digimon attack again, but nothing seemed to phase the evil Digimon. "Well, crap," Jyou muttered and Taichi was inclined to agree that those words summed up the situation nicely just then.

"**Dark Spreader**!" Daemon called out and a wave of Darkness flew out from him. MagnaAngemon and Angewomon flew in front of the other Digimon.

"**Gate of Destiny**!"

"**Heaven's Charm**!"

They were attempting to shield the other Digimon from the attack, and they had managed, since the **Gate of Destiny** sucked up a lot of it and **Heaven's Charm** blocked much of the rest of it.

"**Algol's Flame**!" Daemon cried out before his previous attack had really dispersed. A gigantic orb of flame shot from his mouth strait at the Digimon. Taichi could only watch as the blast shot through their Digimon and turned them all back into Rookies.

* * *

Takeru's golden shield flashed into life the moment their Digimon fell back into their Rookie states around them to block Daemon's attack. Hikari stepped up next to him and held up her hand. An instant later some pink light shot from her hand and hit the Digimon who balked back from the attack, but remained undestroyed. "I don't think I have the power to destroy him," she called back to them.

Yamato took hold of Taichi's arm. "We have to retreat for now," he said. "We have to regroup and get the others. Our Digimon are too weak to do anything."

"We'd never make it back to the portal before he would attack again," Koushiro said.

Yamato watched as Hikari and Takeru looked at each other for just a few seconds. He didn't even pretend to understand what they were communicating, but finally Hikari just nodded her head. "Hikari and I will stall him to give you enough time to get to the portal," Takeru said as he looked at the rest of the team. "My shield will block his attacks and Hikari can use her Light to stun him. We'll be fine."

"All right," Taichi agreed, but Yamato could hear the reluctance in his voice. Yamato knew that he didn't like giving up and he probably didn't want to leave Hikari behind either. He turned to the others. "Start getting back to the portal." Jyou and Sora obeyed, most of the Digimon following along with them, but Koushiro lingered a moment longer, though Mimi was pulling on his arm a bit, trying to get him to come. "I'm not going to leave you," Taichi said to Hikari.

Hikari bent down to pick up the fallen Salamon and Takeru did the same with Patamon. They had been closest to Daemon's attack and, in their attempt to shield the others from the previous attack, had taken the most damage. Hikari handed Salamon to Taichi and said, "Take her with you. You can run fastest with her than I could. Please, Taichi."

Yamato was shocked when Takeru handed Patamon to him. "Take care of him," Takeru said to him. "He's not going to understand." He paused and hesitated. "And make sure Taichi goes with you," he added quietly.

Yamato felt a flash of dread slice his body. He looked into his brother's eyes and could see the hope that usually shone in them, but there was also something like resignation behind the hope. He grabbed Takeru's hand, suddenly wary of what was going happen. "Takeru?" he asked softly.

Takeru smiled at him. "Everything will be all right. Now, go," he said, before pulling his hand away.

* * *

Koushiro had never in his life wished he wasn't intelligent until now. He wished he couldn't catch the subtext that was playing in the air. He wanted to be ignorant of the emotions he saw flickering across Yamato's face as Takeru pulled his hand away and turned with Hikari to face Daemon. He longed to pretend he had no idea what was probably about to happen.

"Come on," Mimi said, pulling on his arm. He looked at her face and knew that she had no idea what was about to happen. Mimi tended to have her emotions plain on her face, and she was clearly not feeling the despair that was suddenly sinking into his heart. Despite what he knew, despite all the knowledge he had, he did not know how to prevent this. He allowed Mimi to pull him along with her. Sora and Jyou were already ahead with most of their Digimon. He glanced briefly behind them and saw that Yamato was trying to get Taichi to come with him. Finally, Taichi said something that Koushiro didn't hear. He saw Yamato's lips move in a reply. Taichi and Yamato turned from their siblings and began to follow him and Mimi.

Koushiro didn't know if Taichi had guessed what Takeru and Hikari were about to do, like he suspected Yamato did. Koushiro hadn't felt this bad since he found out he was adopted. He had thought that the eight of them would be enough, but he had miscalculated. He tried to tell himself that he couldn't have known Daemon could Digivolve into some kind of Super Ultimate level, but somehow his head wasn't really listening because as he ran away with Mimi, the same words kept playing across his mind:

_Saving the worlds will require Light and Hope's destruction…_

* * *

Satisfied that their brothers were actually going to leave, Takeru could face his fate without regret. Takeru wasn't sure when exactly he knew what was about happen. He didn't even really know how he knew it _was_ going to be all right. He chuckled a little. He always had been terribly optimistic. "I fail to see what is funny about this," Hikari remarked dryly.

"I guess just a little bit of grave humor," Takeru said. "Are you ready?"

"Just another minute," she replied. "We have to make sure they get away."

His golden shield kept Daemon at bay, giving the others a chance to get away. "Shoot some of your light at him again," Takeru remarked. "We have to make sure he doesn't know what we're up to."

Hikari nodded and lifted her hand. A pink light shot from her hand and they watch from inside the shield as it hit the Digimon in the chest. He hissed in pain, and Takeru smiled at the small victory. When he looked down at Hikari, he saw that she was smiling as well. He pulled her face towards him and leaned down to kiss her. He pulled away just enough to rest his forehead on hers. "I guess forever was quite as long as I thought," he remarked quietly, as he straightened to look into her eyes.

"I love you, Takeru," she said. He smiled when she began to glow with a soft white light, just as she had nine years ago. Takeru wondered if there was any way he could possibly love this girl before him more than he did. He noted briefly that he had begun to glow as well with the same soft white light.

"I love you, Hikari," he said simply, knowing there was nothing else he wanted to say more. He kissed her again as he let the protective shield drop from around them.


	13. Resolve

Hiroaki Ishida was, in a way, both more _and _less interested in the news report that his fellow employers were enthralled in. He was less interested in the fact that he wasn't aptly watching the report trying to figure out what was going on, since he knew what was going on…sort of. He was also more interested because he knew that his two sons would likely be deeply involved in what was going on. Yamato had assured him that everything was fine and they were handling the Digimon, but Hiroaki was fairly certain that Yamato had dropped the phone and had been just as surprised as he had been when Takeru appeared in the report with the girl. Hiroaki thought that the girl was probably Taichi's little sister, Hikari. He hadn't met her very often in previous times, nor had he seen her in years. He vaguely remembered Yamato mentioning that she and Takeru were best friends before Takeru and Natsuko left to France. He could only guess that the relationship picked back up once Takeru moved back with him. He left the office to take a lunch (his coworkers all looked at him in utter disbelief when he told them this), since he knew it was only a matter of time before they found out who Takeru was and that he was Hiroaki's son. He honestly didn't know exactly how he was going to handle that in the office.

He walked to a nearby coffee shop and ordered a cup of coffee. The shop was playing the report on the monsters same as the office was, but Hiroaki noted with pride that they were at least streaming his own station rather than another news station. He sighed and drunk deeply from his coffee. He had the feeling that today was not going to be a good day.

"We've received confirmation of the identities of the two teens that earlier today flew off with what appeared to be an angel." Hiroaki perked up and turned to the television screen with some sense of dread when he heard the anchor's words. "Takeru Takaishi and Hikari Yagami, seventeen years old, are residents of Odaiba," the news anchor continued to say as the screen displayed pictures of his son and Hikari. "We have sent one of our reporters, Kurata, to the Yagami household to investigate the situation." Hiroaki sighed as the video cut to Kurata. He felt kind of bad for the Yagami's. He wondered if anyone in the office had figured out he was Takeru's father.

"I'm standing here in front of the apartment complex where Hikari Yagami, the girl allegedly connected to today's monster attack, lives with her parents. Just a few minutes ago, we interviewed Yuuko Yagami, her mother. Her response was less than welcoming."

The video cut to a previously recorded feed of Yuuko answering the door with the reporter standing outside. Yuuko looked shocked to find a reporter outside her door. "Are you the mother of Hikari Yagami?"

"Y-yes," Yuuko said cautiously. "Why? Is she hurt? What's going on?"

"Your daughter has been connected to the monster attack that occurred just over an hour ago," Kurata explained. "Do you know what she was doing there?"

Yuuko visibly paled at this. "I don't know anything," she said firmly.

"Where is your daughter now?"

"I don't know. Please leave," Yuuko said as she shut the door.

The feed cut back to Kurata standing in front of apartment complex. "Something seems to be going on," she said. "Back to you."

The news anchor came back on the screen. "Thank you, Kurata," he said. "We just received word that the other youth involved in this incident, Takeru Takaishi, is the son of one of our own reporters, Hiroaki Ishida."

Hiroaki flinched and felt like banging his head on the table at that. "So much for keeping a low profile," he muttered.

The anchor continued. "It seems that he has left on a lunch break. We are attempting to find him now and find out whether he knows anymore about these mysterious events. More monsters are being spotted all over the world. Some of them even seem to be fighting each other…"

Hiroaki stood up and left the coffee shop before he finished listening to the report as his phone began to ring. Assuming it was probably the office, he didn't pick it up right away. Once he was out on the street, he looked at the number and was surprised to see that it was Yamato who was calling. He picked it up. "Hello?"

"Dad?"

Hiroaki could tell that it was Yamato, but he had never heard his son so shaken up before. He sounded like he was either about to cry or had just finished crying, which wasn't really like Yamato at all. "What is it, Yamato?"

"Dad," Yamato repeated. "It's Takeru…he's gone."

Hiroaki stopped dead on the street as a chill ran down his spine. "What do you mean?"

"In the Digital World…he…he…" Hiroaki had never heard Yamato at such a loss for words. Hiroaki heard him take a deep breath over the phone before he spoke again, "We weren't winning, Dad. Takeru and Hikari stayed behind to hold him off so the rest of could get back to the real world, but…they didn't make it."

"You mean they're stuck in the Digital World?" Hiroaki asked, somehow knowing that it wasn't true and knowing just exactly what Yamato was saying, no matter how much he wished it wasn't true.

"No," Yamato said his tone still shaky. "Daemon's attacks were so powerful. He hit them and now…they're gone…"

Hiroaki's arm dropped to his side as the truth finally began to sink in. His son, his little Takeru, was gone. He didn't know how he was going to explain this to Natsuko.

* * *

"_HIKARI!"_

Yamato knew that for the rest of his life, he would never forgot Taichi's anguished cry as they looked back just in time to see Takeru's shield drop and Daemon's powerful attack hit their younger siblings, obliterating them into data. It took all the will and power in him to grab onto Taichi's arm and drag him after the others instead of running back to the spot where his brother disappeared. He just kept repeating that there was nothing they could do and they had to get out before Daemon caught up with them, and he knew that it was a mantra for himself as much as for Taichi. He had known. Somehow he had known deep in his heart that when Takeru told him to that everything would be all right and to go with the others that he would not be seeing his brother again.

He hung up the phone once he sensed that his father was no longer listening. He hadn't wanted to tell his father what had happened. It made the whole thing too real, but Sora had insisted that their parents had a right to know. He looked over on the couch where she was trying to encourage Taichi to call his parents, but Taichi wasn't listening. Yamato wasn't even sure he was hearing her. He had seen a lot of sides of Taichi during their long friendship. He had seen him happy, sad, angered, carefree, and any other dozen emotions that Taichi usually displayed. But he had never seen Taichi look so _blank_ before. He was sitting on the couch staring at the opposite wall and absent stroking Salamon as she sat despondently on his lap. She and Patamon had not taken the news of their partners' demise well at all. Patamon was off in the corner with Biyomon. Biyomon was putting her wing over the little Digimon in a comforting gesture, but Yamato was certain it was not helping. Takeru had been right when he said that Patamon wouldn't understand. He wasn't sure he really understood. He didn't know how he could have just let it happen. He should have dragged Takeru with him. He shouldn't have left him there.

The door opened and for a moment he wondered in annoyance if anyone _knocked_ these days anymore. "Did we win? Is it over?" Daisuke asked as he, Ken, Miyako and Iori filed into the apartment.

There was silence to his question for a minute. Yamato was sure that no one knew how exactly to answer that. Finally it was Koushiro who answered. "No," he said. "I…miscalculated. The eight of us weren't enough to defeat him. It's my fault."

"You didn't know he could Digivolve," Mimi said as she placed a hand on Koushiro's shoulder.

"Where are Takeru and Hikari?" Ken asked as he glanced around the room.

The silence in the room was heavy and almost oppressive to Yamato. He was sure that no one wanted to be the one to tell the younger kids what had happened. The silence was broken only when Patamon burst into tears. Biyomon tried to comfort the little Digimon, but he seemed inconsolable.

"When it became clear that we weren't going to win, we decided to come back to formulate a new plan," Jyou said. He pulled his glasses off and began to clean them. "They offered to stay behind and hold him off to let the rest of us get away. With Takeru's shield, they should have been fine. But…Daemon destroyed them."

Yamato winced at Jyou's words. As a medical student, Jyou probably had some practice at delivering bad news, but that didn't mean that Yamato wanted to hear it again. He looked once again at Taichi, who still hadn't moved. He noticed that Sora had given up on trying to talk to him.

Miyako burst into tears and Ken went to put his arms around her. "They can't be gone," she was saying between her sobs. "They just _can't_."

* * *

There was some sort of unspoken agreement that they would stay together that night. The apartment was a little crowded, but no one seemed to mind. Daisuke, Koushiro, Ken, Iori, and Jyou were in one corner, probably discussing some kind of plan to destroy Daemon. Miyako and Mimi seemed to just be comforting each other on the couch. The Digimon were all next to their partners, all them quite quiet, probably sensing their partners distress. But it was Yamato and Taichi that had Sora worried. Since arriving back from the Digital World, Taichi hadn't moved from his spot on the couch, still stroking Salamon. She didn't know what she could do for him. She had known him longer than anyone else here and in all that time had never seen him quite like this. It was like he was _broken_ and she had no idea how to fix him.

So she decided to focus her efforts on Yamato. She wasn't just his friend but also his girlfriend after all. He was tinkering in the kitchen, making something or another. She wandered into the kitchen and just watched him for a minute. He didn't really seem like he was paying that much attention to what he was doing. She walked up to him and placed a hand on his arm. She didn't know what to say to him. "What are you making?" she asked tentatively.

"Nothing," he replied as he continued to chop some vegetables. "I just didn't want to think about it. This helps a little."

"Are you alright?" she asked, knowing that it was probably a dumb question, but not really knowing any other way to broach the subject.

"I left him, Sora," Yamato said and Sora could hear the pain etched into his voice. "I just turned around and forced Taichi to go with me. I never should have left him."

"You didn't know," Sora began, but cut off when Yamato slammed his hands on the counter.

"That's just it," Yamato said, silent tears running down his cheeks. "I _did _know. Somehow I knew they were going to sacrifice themselves to save us. It's just so like them. And I did nothing to stop them. He told me to leave him. He told me everything would be all right." He wiped the tears from his face. "This is not all right, Takeru," he whispered.

Sora sensed that Yamato was on the verge of breaking down, but didn't want the others to see. "Do you want to go somewhere, Yamato?" she asked, offering the only solution she could think of. "It could just the two of us for a little while, and then we can come back." She knew he would feel a lot less pressure to stay composed if it was just her around, especially since Taichi seemed to be out of commission.

Yamato shook his head. "I can't leave Taichi," he said and Sora couldn't help but admire his fierce loyalty to his best friend. "Not like that, but I don't know what to do for him."

"Taichi?"

"I'm all right, Agumon."

Sora and Yamato turned and found Taichi standing in the doorway to the kitchen with Salamon still in his arms. Sora noted with some relief that Taichi's eyes didn't appear to be lifeless anymore. "Sorry for flaking out like that," he said to them. "I guess I just kind of zoned out for a while." He cast a hesitant smile in their direction.

Sora approached him cautiously, somewhat afraid that one wrong move would cause him to break again. "Taichi," she said calmly. "You have to tell your parents what happened. They need to know."

"I know, Sora," he said. "I heard you before, but there will be time for that later. Right now, we have to get rid of Daemon, before he causes any more damage." He walked back into the living room and Sora noticed most of the Digidestined giving their leader wary glances. Apparently she and Yamato were not the only ones to be freaked out by Taichi's unusual reaction from before.

* * *

Taichi surveyed the group and almost wanted to chuckle at the wary looks they were all giving him. Truthfully, he hadn't really expected that he would shut down like that. It hadn't lasted as long as everyone assumed that it did, however. He had come back to his senses not long after Sora had finished trying to convince him to call his parents, which he had sort of partly heard in some corner of his mind, but had been so caught up in his failure to protect his sister that he didn't want to listen. Since everyone steered clear of him after that, he had used that time to think.

And he had come to the conclusion that his sister and Takeru could not possibly be dead. He refused to believe it. The two of them had come too far and been through too many things to simply have to sacrifice themselves to save the worlds. He adamantly believed that everything would be all right, just as Takeru had said to Yamato before they left them. Hikari would not want him to give up so easily. He had a job to do. As the leader of the Digidestined, he couldn't withdraw into himself and ignore this threat to the worlds. He had fortified his resolve around himself. He had other people to protect. People right in front of him that he cared about. Wherever Hikari was right then, she probably at least had Takeru with her, whom, despite everything and for whatever reason, Taichi trusted to keep her safe. He knew the others would probably think he was crazy or just refusing to accept the truth, and maybe he was. But no matter what, he would never give up on his sister.

"Do we know if Daemon is in the real world yet?" Taichi asked the group in the corner.

"I don't believe so," Koushiro answered. "At least Gennai hasn't emailed me."

"We could try watching the news again," Iori suggested. "They had the report before about monsters."

"Good idea, Iori," Taichi said and he picked up the remote and turned on the television. He turned it to the station that Yamato's father worked for. Despite his beliefs, he was still a little stunned when the news station was once again replaying the report about the fight with DarkTyrannomon. She had been just _there_ only a couple hours ago. They all watched as the anchor talked about monster attacks all over the world.

"Finally, we have received some dreadful news," the news anchor was saying. "Our reporter, Hiroaki Ishida, the father of Takeru Takaishi, returned to the studio not long ago to tell us that his son and the girl involved with the monster attacks, Hikari Yagami, were killed in a monster attack not long ago." Taichi had to wince, since he knew the news should have come from him when his parents found out. He had no doubt that they were watching this report, since they knew about him and Hikari being Digidestined and fighting monsters. "We don't have many details, but we will let you know if more comes up concerning this monster attacks." Taichi muted the television. He didn't really want to hear anymore.

He wasn't surprised when his phone began to ring. He looked at the number and sighed in resignation when he saw that it was his mother who was calling. She had called him earlier that day after the first report had played with Hikari and Takeru. He silenced the phone, just like he had before. There would be time for his parents later.

"Taichi," Sora said. "You're going to have to talk to her sometime."

"I know," he said, not surprised that Sora had known that it was his mother who was calling him. "But we need to come up with a way to fight Daemon now. Takeru and…Hikari sacrificed themselves so that we could find a way to stop him."

"It's him," Miyako spoke up. She was pointing at the television, where the news camera was showing a far away shot of Daemon. Taichi turned the sound back on.

"—destroyed. This newest monster seems to be more destructive than any others. We suggest that everyone evacuate this area as soon as possible. We have word that the defense force is on its way. We can only hope that someone will be able to stop him."

"Let's go," Taichi said. "We may not be the army, but we are the Digidestined."

* * *

It was unending white yet strangely familiar. There was no sound, no wind, nothing to prove that anything could exist there. Yet he knew they had been there before. "It's not exactly what I was expecting," he said. "But I guess if you're here, then it can't be too bad."

A soft laugh escaped her lips. "You're ridiculous sometimes, you know that," she said.

"I prefer optimistic, if you don't mind."

She laughed again, but it ended all too soon for him. Sometimes he believed he could listen to that laugh forever. "Why do I feel like we've been here before?" she asked.

"I have the same exact feeling," he replied. Cerulean met cinnamon.

"Apocalymon!" Takeru and Hikari cried out in unison.


	14. Abysmal

_He thought that if there was one colossal understatement that could describe the situation they found themselves in at that moment, it would probably be something along the lines of "things are bad"._

_Because things weren't bad._

_They were catastrophically and horrifically abysmal._

_But suddenly, in that dark abyss of broken dreams and shattered lives, a light shone through._

_A final hope._

* * *

"Everyone is advised to evacuate these areas and find somewhere safer—wait! It appears that another monster has appeared on the scene, this one appearing to look like some kind of _dragon_. It is hard to tell exactly what is going on down there, but we can only hope that this newest monster is more friendly than the last."

Yuuko was no longer listening to the report, though she vaguely recognized the newest monster on the television. Her mind was only peripherally focused on the television. When she had heard the news, she didn't believe it. There was no way it could possibly be true. There had been a nagging doubt in her mind that Hiroaki would really have no reason to lie, but he could have mistaken. She had called Taichi immediately, wanting to hear her son's voice tell her that it was a mistake, _she_ was in fact standing right next to him, but he hadn't answered the phone. Which was answer enough. She had sat down on the couch and had somewhat watched the rest of the news report.

The reporter was now describing that numerous monsters were now appearing in bright flashes of light, the camera focused in on them as much as it could, and Yuuko felt her heart stop again. She knew some of those monsters…Digimon, she remembered from the back tresses of her mind.

She had only stood next to her husband watching as their children had fought that other monster nine years ago. From so far away, she couldn't really pick them out very well, but she remembered when they had disappeared. She wasn't the only parent who had broken down at that point, thinking that they would never see them again. But they had come back. Reappeared. Relief had flooded her body; her children were okay. Some of the monsters…Digimon, she corrected herself again, from that time were the same ones on the television now. All but those two _angels_ that little Takeru and…her…_daughter_ had been with. If they weren't there, then she was truly gone. There was no way…Hikari…would have let her friends go off and fight this threat without her.

She knew that her son was out there. Her flighty, thick-headed, stubborn, wonderful son. Yuuko wanted nothing more than to rush out the door, race down to the fight, and drag the boy back to safety with her. She had lost one child already and she didn't know if she could bear to lose them both. Something deep inside her, however, held her to the spot.

She knew Taichi would not come. She knew that he had to be there. For whatever reason, and she had no real idea why, her children had been chosen to do this. To protect everyone from something the world was really better off not knowing it was necessary to be protected from. In these brief moments, when the two worlds slide so close to each other, she got a glimpse of what her children have to go through to ensure the safety of not just one world, but two. She had always been sort of proud to a mother of Digidestined, as she had heard them call themselves. She had always been sort of glad that her children were chosen, for it had given them some kind of maturity and a sense of responsibility that they might have never acquired otherwise. It had given them friends of a lifetime, friends who understood each other, who had been through the same experiences.

So she sat and watched from afar, like the rest of the world, as Taichi and his friends fought for the safety of the world for the she-didn't-even-know what time. She sat and prayed that, at the end of the day, she would still have one child left to hold in her arms as he returned from victory.

* * *

Hiroaki hadn't actually meant to tell the world that they were gone. He had wandered back into the station, not knowing where else to go. He had spent so much time there that he felt more comfortable there than he did in his own apartment. Though, he had admitted to himself, that he knew going back to the apartment would have been too painful. There was likely to be too many reminders of Takeru there. It would have just ripped the hole his son had left in the wake of his demise even wider.

So, in his thoughts of avoiding the apartment, he had forgotten his resolve to avoid the station and had managed to meander his way back there. It hadn't been long at all before his manager had confronted him and asked him what he knew about Takeru's involvement with the monster attacks. Just hearing his name mentioned brought back the pain, raw and biting. And the words that Takeru and Hikari perished in an attack had just come slipping out of his mouth. He wanted to take them back immediately, because he knew that no matter how much of a protest he put up, the news business was the news business and his words were going on the air, whether he liked it or not.

Stupid freedom of the press.

He had escaped to his office, and assumed he must have projected some kind of dark aura enough that people avoided him. A couple of times he noticed people approach his door, only to practically scamper away after one look at him. He certainly didn't feel like being disturbed at the moment. He was trying to the work up the courage to do the one thing he felt least like doing in the world, but was also the one thing he knew he needed to do most in the world.

Hiroaki picked up the phone and dialed the number he dreaded. He went through all the instructions of placing such as call. His fist clenched around the phone as it rang. He almost wished there wasn't an answer that he wouldn't have to face this, that there would be no need to tell _her_—

"Allo, oui?"

"Natsuko," he practically sighed, recognizing her voice, despite the language difference. For a fraction of a second, he almost hung up. Instead, he continued. "It's me…Hiroaki," he added, probably unnecessarily. He braced himself and then asked the question, "Have you heard the news out of Japan yet?"

* * *

Yoshie Izumi clenched her fists together as she watched the news report on the television. She recognized Koushiro's Digimon among those fighting and wished with all her heart that there was something she could do. She was certain that this had something to do with why Koushiro had been slightly unavailable in the past few months. She had first thought that he might have gotten a girlfriend (she had seen him with that girl…what was her name…Mimi a few times) and had just not wanted to talk to his own mother about it.

But now it was clear to her what had been going on. Koushiro and his friends had been dealing with yet another Digimon threat, and, probably in an attempt to not worry her, he hadn't told her about it. She understood, since they hardly ever involved their parents in business with the Digimon, but she was certainly worried now.

She remembered Takeru and Hikari, more from the events of nine years ago than what happened six years ago. They had been so small then, so very young. She had been shocked to see their Digimon turn into angels, which Koushiro had so quickly explained. They had gone without fear to help their older brothers. To hear they were gone now, she was somewhat devastated. They had been such sweet little children; she could imagine what their parents were going through, as she remembered losing her first son just before Koushiro was given to them. It was painful to lose a child, no matter how old they were.

* * *

Toshiko Takenouchi was deeply worried for her daughter. She had accepted long ago that her daughter was a free-spirited girl (far too much like her father, in Toshiko's opinion, she thought fondly), but that didn't mean she liked watching her daughter be in danger, like she was now. She, like many other parents of these chosen children she knew, never really knew how to help their children when these occurrences came up, other than watch over them from afar and lovingly wait for their return.

She wanted to do more for her daughter, but didn't want to get in the way. She was grateful that Sora was a part of this group of children, since from the very first occurrence, she had become closer to Sora in ways she hadn't thought were possible because of how headstrong and stubborn she usually was (perhaps a little bit too much like herself, she thought this time).

So she sat and watched the news, as her daughter fought to protect the world, supporting her and hoping that she would return to her soon. No matter what, she would always be waiting, with open arms to welcome her home.

* * *

Taichi had fallen deep into "leader mode". Yamato suspected that it was his own way of coping with what had happened to their siblings. Yamato was using the thought of the fight to focus on something else. It was easier not to think about him when he was thinking about something else.

"Daisuke, Ken, get Imperialdramon ready," he said. "We have to get there as soon as possible." Ken and Daisuke nodded and left out the door with Veemon and Wormmon, with Miyako, Iori, and Jyou and most of the Digimon close behind. All but two, who Taichi stopped before they could follow the others out the door. "Salamon and Patamon, I think you should remain here."

"No," Patamon said firmly. "We're coming with you."

"But without…your partners, you can't Digivolve," Koushiro pointed out logically. Yamato sensed that he was about to mention their names, but had changed his mind. Yamato was grateful for his tact, but was beginning to wonder if it was really necessary. After all, he was sure his brother wouldn't want the memory of himself buried. However, now was simply not the time to discuss such things.

"I agree with Taichi," Yamato spoke up. "I think you would really be safer here."

"I don't care," Patamon cried. "I want to be useful!"

"I think they're right," Mimi said. "Even though their partners are gone, that doesn't make them any less a part of the team." Koushiro opened his mouth to say something, but Mimi shot him a death glare, which caused him to shut his mouth again.

"Mimi's right," Sora said. "They are still Digimon of the Digidestined. They deserve to be there."

"It's not like you can force us to stay here," Salamon piped up with some of her old sassiness. "Though we're only at Rookie level, we're still Digimon. We'll just blow out a window and follow you anyway."

Yamato and Taichi exchanged glances. Yamato thought that Taichi might be thinking the same thing he was, namely that they didn't need to pay for a new window on top of everything else, but he couldn't be one hundred percent positive. "Fine," Taichi said. "But I want you to stay out of the way once we get there. Hikari would never forgive me if you got destroyed."

Yamato eyes narrowed at Taichi's words. Not only had he actually said Hikari's name with no visible wincing or signs of pain, he had spoken of his sister in present tense. If he really thought about it, it wasn't beyond the scope of his knowledge of Taichi to know that he might just refuse to believe that his sister was gone. He opened his mouth to say something, but Sora laid a hand on his arm. He looked down at her and saw the pleading look in her eyes. "Not now, just let it go," she whispered. He nodded.

He went over to pick up Patamon, as Taichi did the same with Salamon. "Let's go," Taichi said. He led the way out the door, where they saw Imperialdramon already on the street waiting. People were screaming and pointing at it, which, considering what they probably saw earlier and Imperialdramon's less than friendly appearance, wasn't all that unexpected.

"What's the holdup?" Daisuke yelled up to them, waving his arm.

Yamato rolled his eyes and even heard Taichi sigh. "Can we do nothing without drawing attention to ourselves?" he heard Koushiro muttered as they ran towards the Digimon.

"We needed to get there as fast as possible and he's the fastest Digimon we have," Taichi said. "We have to hold—defeat Daemon quickly, before anyone else get hurts."

Yamato once again noticed Taichi's words, but held his tongue this time. He was worried about his best friend. Taichi was refusing to accept the reality of the situation, and Yamato didn't know what to do about it. He didn't know how to help his friend understand that their siblings were gone. It simply wasn't _possible_ for them to have survived such an attack, so there was no point to hold on to a false hope.

Takeru probably wouldn't think so.

The thought ran right across the forefront of his mind before he could stop it. Feelings Yamato didn't _want_ began to well up inside him as they climbed onto Imperialdramon. He was on his way into a battle; it wasn't exactly the time to be having distracting thoughts.

"Are you alright?" Sora asked as she stood next to him. "You've been really quiet, which isn't that unusual," she added that last bit as almost an afterthought. "But this is a different quiet."

"I don't know how to help him," Yamato said quietly to her. "I don't know how to help myself," he muttered.

"We'll figure it out once this is all over," she assured him. "We'll do it together, maybe help find Taichi a girlfriend or something, too."

Yamato found a small smile curling just the edge of his lips at her words, but it wasn't there for very long. "It would take quite the girl to keep up with Taichi Yagami," he said.

"Yeah," Sora agreed. She took a deep breath. "I know you don't want to hear this right now, but both of you will be okay. Maybe not for a while, but eventually you'll be okay."

Before he could process her words, Imperialdramon came to a stop and above them, not far away, was Daemon, cackling as he destroyed yet something else in his path of annihilation. "When will bad guys learn that destroying everything is not exactly the best way to get in the good graces of the people they are trying to conquer?" Miyako asked suddenly.

"Some bad guys are just interested in destroying and not conquering," Jyou said solemnly.

"I'm interested in stopping them, no matter what their reasons are," Daisuke said.

"I agree," Taichi said. "Let's go."

The Digidestined, Salamon, and Patamon got off Imperialdramon as the rest of the Digimon Digivolved to their highest levels and Imperialdramon switched to Fighter Mode.

"So you have come to try again," Daemon boomed above them as they stood to face them. "Didn't you learn last time that you are no match for me? Now, especially without your precious Hope and Light, you stand no chance against me!"

"We'll see about that!" Daisuke yelled at the giant Digimon.

"Attack!" Taichi called out, which leapt the Digimon into action as they called out their most powerful attacks. Daemon just stood there as the attacks came at him. The attacks stirred up dust around them and Yamato wanted it to be enough.

As the dust settled, they could hear Daemon's laugh coming from above them. "Oh, that tickled!" he called out to them. "But now it's my turn," he said. "**Algol's Flame!**"

The Digimon blocked the attack from the Digidestined, but not without sacrifice. WarGreymon, MetalGarurumon, and Imperialdramon lasted through it, but the rest of their Digimon were returned to their Rookie states. The Digidestined gathered up their Digimon around them.

"Don't give up!" Taichi and Daisuke called out at the same time.

"**Terra Force!**"

"**Metal Wolf Claw!**"

"**Positron Laser!**"

The attacks hit Daemon, and he seemed to wince a little bit, and Yamato felt his hope rise just a little. If they could just hold out long enough, they might be able to beat him.

But that was crushed as Daemon grabbed hold of WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon with his claws. "**Dark Spreader!**" The two Digimon cried out in pain before Daemon flung them to the side. As they hit the ground, they became Gabumon and Agumon again.

"Gabumon!" Yamato cried out. He didn't want to think this could be happening. They simply just could not lose again. But Daemon was right. Without their team being complete, there was no way they could win.

"**Positron Laser!**" Imperialdramon tried again, but there was no use as Daemon attacked again with his **Algol's Flame** that sent Imperialdramon back into Veemon and Wormmon.

"Well, this is bad," Yamato heard Koushiro say from somewhere in the group.

Yamato could only think of how colossal of an understatement that was. They couldn't win. Things weren't just bad; they were catastrophically and horrifically abysmal.

"Once I destroy you, there will be no one left who could oppose me," Daemon said. "Farewell, Digidestined! **Algol's Flame!**"

"NO!"

He knew that voice. He _knew _that voice. But it wasn't _possible_. There was _no way_. He had to be hallucinating in his final moments, because it just couldn't _be_.

A flash of pink light streaked past them and hit Daemon in the chest, causing him to cry out in pain. A bright golden light flashed in front of them creating a shield that blocked the attack from them as two figures ran out in front of the group.

As the light faded and dust settled once again, Yamato stared in disbelief at the sight before him. He didn't bother to look at the others, because they probably were feeling the same thing he was.

"That was close," the petite brunette in front of them said to them, her cinnamon eyes just sparkling with light.

"Sorry we're late," the tall blond standing next to her added, his cerulean eyes full of hope and just the tiniest bit of amusement that Yamato recognized so well.

Suddenly aware that maybe this wasn't an illusion or some kind of hallucination, Yamato could only think of one thing to say.

"Takeru?"


	15. Hope

"This _is _the same place we came to after Apocalymon destroyed us during the battle nine years ago," Takeru affirmed as he looked around at the whiteness that surrounded them. "But why? And how?" he asked not really sure he was expecting an answer. He had honestly expected that he and Hikari would not be alive right now, yet they were clearly not dead, just like they had not been those many years ago.

"I have no idea," Hikari replied. She was clearly just as confused as he was to find themselves in this predicament. "But we have to get back. The others…have probably assumed the worst."

"How do we get back?" he wondered out loud, running his hand through his hair. "Last time we were here, I think we used the power of the Crests to assemble ourselves back into the Digital World."

"But we had to give up our Crests to release the Sovereigns," Hikari pointed out. "Though with everything that has been happening…"

She trailed off and didn't finish her sentence, but Takeru understood what she was saying. Things had been happening so quickly lately that he hadn't really had time to process much of anything, but given everything that had happened in the last few days, he was beginning to wonder if they still had some access to their Crests after all. Koushiro had said that the powers they had somehow acquired were digital manifestations of their Crests. Daemon had clearly thought so since he was willing to destroy them because of it. They sat in silence for a long time; Takeru wasn't even sure how long. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence at all. Their bond was just as such that they didn't need words between them all the time.

Takeru stood up suddenly as a thought occurred to him. "They keep telling us that our Crests are different," Takeru said, speaking his thoughts out loud. "Azulongmon told us that the powers of our Crests, unlike the others, don't all come from within us, but from the Digital World as well."

"So you think that it why we can use these powers?" Hikari asked, standing up next to him. "Because Light and Hope are always there for us to access?"

"Something like that, I guess," Takeru said, not quite sure yet how this train of thought was going to help them get back to their friends. A stray thought entered his mind and he voiced it out loud. "What if we can still access them here?"

"What do you mean?" Hikari asked.

"Well, this place has got to be a part of the Digital World somehow, right?" Takeru said. "If we can somehow use the power of our Crests, perhaps we could reconfigure ourselves back."

Hikari shrugged. "It's worth a shot," she said. "What do you think we should do?"

"I'm not sure," Takeru said. "But maybe it will be something like how we created the portal from the Dark World to the Digital World. If we just concentrate…" He mimicked her and shrugged. She smiled at him and grasped his hands. She shut her eyes and he followed suit. He wished them to be in the Digital World, and assumed that Hikari had to be doing the same. Even with his eyes closed, he could tell the scene around them was getting lighter. He opened his eyes slightly and saw Hikari glowing with pink light and himself with the golden shine he was becoming more familiar with. He smiled, encouraged that maybe his plan was working after all. He closed his eyes again as the light got too bright to bear and felt himself move, just like the time the portal had drawn them from the Dark World.

He opened his eyes again. The barren wasteland around them made Takeru believe that maybe they didn't land in the same place they had disappeared from, but then he remembered what probably happened to the place after they had gone. Hikari must have been thinking along the same lines as she said softly, "I can't believe Daemon would destroy such a beautiful world like this."

"So I see you have come back," a voice said from behind them.

They turned around and Takeru smiled at the brown-robed figure standing not far away. "Gennai," he said.

"Come," Gennai said. "There is much to discuss before you return to your friends in the battle against Daemon. Azulongmon wishes to speak with you. Daemon has moved on to another part of the Digital World for now, still seeking entrance into your world."

They followed Gennai for some time, until they reached what Takeru recognized as a hologram projector that Gennai once used to communicate with them. As they stopped before it, it activated in a rainbow of light and Azulongmon's image was projected to them.

"Welcome back, Digidestined of Hope and Light," Azulongmon said. "You have completed the requirements of the prophecy and therefore have obtained the power needed to defeat Daemon in your world, where he has now gone."

"Daemon's in the real world?" Hikari asked and Takeru heard the worry clear in her voice.

"We have to go and help them," Takeru added, though he really had no idea what Azulongmon was talking about when he said they now had the power to help defeat Daemon. Truthfully, he didn't really feel that much different than he had before.

"Yes," Azulongmon said. "But I must first explain what has happened to you. Because you are human and not a part of the Digital World, when you were deleted by Daemon, your data was sent to the binary plane of the Digital World, like you had gone during your fight with Apolcalymon when he had destroyed you before. This binary plane allows a deeper access to the data of the Digital World, and therefore your powers, like how you were able to gain access to the power of your Crests before without the use of the tags as a conduit."

Though everything was beginning to make more sense, Takeru was still confused. "How it that going to help us? If Daemon is in the real world, we can't use our powers there."

"I think you will find that you can now," Gennai said. "Thanks to the binary plane, you were able to 'download' the data, so to speak, needed to use your powers in the real world. And the power to help your friends."

"What do you remember of your battle against VenomMyotismon?" Azulongmon asked.

"Angewomon and Angemon shot arrows at Taichi and Yamato causing Agumon and Gabumon to Digivolve to their Mega forms," Hikari answered. "Then our crests trapped him, so that they could defeat him."

"Where did your Digimon get the arrows?" Gennai asked, smiling slightly.

Takeru frowned in thought. Then it hit him. "From our Crests," he said.

"Yes," Azulongmon said. "So, in a way, it was _your_ power that helped Agumon and Gabumon to Digivolve into their Mega forms. Now that you are older and have been to the binary plane, your powers have grown exponentially."

Takeru followed his train of thought and was struck by where he thought Azulongmon might be going with this. "You've got to be joking," he said, overwhelmed by the very idea of what he thought Azulongmon was telling them.

"It's worth a shot, right?" Hikari asked, repeating her words from when they were in the binary plane, taking his hand again.

Takeru had to admit she had a point. They really didn't have any other options. He nodded and smiled at her. "Well, I always was the optimistic one," he said. "Let's go."

"I bid you good luck, Digidestined," Azulongmon said as his hologram faded away.

Takeru looked at Gennai. "Do you know where Daemon is in the real world?"

Gennai nodded and the hologram activated again, this time showing Daemon destroying a section of Odaiba. "I think that's near my father's apartment," Takeru said, hoping that his father's computer was on. It would be very helpful to be able to go to a place nearby. He knew that Taichi and Yamato's apartment was farther from Daemon than his father's apartment.

"There's a Digi-port that way," Gennai said, pointing. "It's not far."

"Thank you, Gennai," Hikari said.

"Using your power like this will probably only be a one-time thing," Gennai said. "So unless you want to be destroyed and go back to the binary plane, I suggest you do all you can to defeat him."

"We'll defeat him," Takeru said and he knew that he believed it, despite how much he knew how crazy the plan was. He took Hikari's hand, and they ran in the direction Gennai had directed them to, back to the real world and their friends.

* * *

"**Terra Force!**"

"**Metal Wolf Claw!**"

"**Positron Laser!**"

Hikari knew they had to be getting close now. The buildings still standing in their way were blocking their view somewhat, but she saw Imperialdramon in his Fighter Mode fly into view. It gave her hope that their friends were holding on. She gave a glance to Takeru running beside her, his eyes full of hope and determination. Luckily, they had been able to get out of the Digital World at his father's apartment, so had not been that far away from the battle.

"**Dark Spreader!**" Hikari wanted to wince when she heard the cries of pain after Daemon's attack. It sounded like WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon, but she didn't stop running. They had to reach them in time.

"We're almost there," Takeru said encouragingly as he ran beside her. She heard Imperialdramon attack again and Daemon retaliate. They turned the corner of a crumbling building and finally saw the Digidestined huddled together in a group with their rookie Digimon around them. She didn't see Imperialdramon anymore and had her fears confirmed when she saw Veemon and Wormmon lying off to the side.

"Once I destroy you, there will be no one left who could oppose me," Daemon said from above them as she and Takeru ran towards their friends. "Farewell, Digidestined! **Algol's Flame!**"

"NO!" Takeru cried out.

Hikari lifted her hand and hoped that Azulongmon and Gennai were right. As she concentrated, a flash of pink light left her hand and hit Daemon in the chest, but not before he managed to release his attack. Takeru lifted his hands, which glowed gold, and a bright golden shield erupted in front of their friends as they ran in front of the group. The attack was blocked and their friends were safe.

She looked at her friends and smiled at the disbelief etched across every single face. "That was close," she commented.

"Sorry we're late," Takeru added and Hikari could hear his amusement in his voice. She wanted to roll her eyes at him, since probably only he would be able to find something amusing about the current situation, but she could almost admit their friends' shocked faces were _slightly_ funny.

"Takeru?" Yamato asked.

She hadn't expected Yamato to be the first one to recover his senses, usual Koushiro was much better at that sort of thing.

"We're gone for a while, and you let the world almost be destroyed?" Takeru asked and Hikari felt the corner of her lips quip into a smile at his teasing tone.

She opened her mouth to admonish Takeru about teasing their friends so much, but was interrupted by the crushing embrace of her older brother. "I…I…" was all Taichi managed to get out.

She smiled softly. "I'm all right, Taichi," she assured him quietly. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

* * *

Takeru smiled when Taichi grabbed Hikari. He had expected as much from him. He looked at the rest of the group. Miyako and Mimi seemed to both have broken down in tears and had Ken and Sora trying to console them. Daisuke seemed ready to assault either one of them, but was held back by Iori and Jyou. Koushiro seemed to studying them with a speculative look on his face and Takeru wondered which question he was trying to puzzle out, since Takeru was certain he had more than one.

His gaze finally landed on his older brother, who just stared at him. Takeru decided to take the initiative and stepped up to his brother. "You did the right thing," Takeru said, guessing what was holding his brother back. "You didn't abandon me. I told you to go, remember?"

"I never should have left you," Yamato said.

"I didn't give you much of a choice," Takeru said. "Besides, I told you everything would be alright, and now it is."

"Daemon is still here," Yamato pointed out.

Takeru smiled at him. He had a feeling that now they were all together and now that he and Hikari had done what was necessary that Daemon would not be a problem much longer. He had complete faith that everything was about to work out. "We're going to take care of that," he said. He was about to explain further when Patamon flew into his arms.

"Takeru!" he cried, giant tears falling from his eyes. "You're alive!"

His smile turned soft. "I'm sorry, Patamon," he said. "Everything will be all right now."

"You used your powers here, in the real world," Koushiro stated.

Takeru nodded. Before he could say anything however, the booming voice of Daemon rushed over them. "Did you think it would be that easy to defeat me? I am the ultimate power of the Digital World!"

"We'll explain later," he said quickly. "Hikari!" She ran up to him, finally having escaped Taichi's embrace, with Salamon in her arms, though Taichi was not far behind. "Are you ready?" he asked. She nodded and set Salamon down next to her and Takeru did the same with Patamon. They intertwined their hands and Takeru smiled, which Hikari readily returned. "I hope this works," he said softly.

* * *

Koushiro had a hundred questions he wanted to ask the two of them; foremost being how they were not dead. But somehow more confusing was, despite what Gennai had previously told him, Takeru and Hikari had used their powers in the real world. He was most curious to know how it was possible, but the moment he made a comment about it happened to be the moment Daemon decided to rear his face again. Takeru said they would explain, since clearly they knew more about what was going on than Koushiro did, which was something Koushiro found slightly disconcerting. He was used to being the one who had the answers.

The moment Takeru and Hikari intertwined their hands, Koushiro had even more questions quickly pop into his mind, for not a few seconds after they joined hands, Takeru and Hikari began to glow. Not pink and not gold, which Koushiro might have expected given the color of their Crests and the powers they had been exhibiting, but they glowed a radiant white, like Hikari had during the fight with Machinedramon. The whole scene was beginning to appear more and more familiar, but he couldn't quite place it until white beams of light shot from them and struck each of the Digidestined. As Koushiro was struck with his own beam, he finally remembered why this appeared to be so familiar.

He remembered Taichi and Yamato being struck with the arrows of Hope and Light, just before Agumon and Gabumon first became WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon.

* * *

"Agumon Warp Digivolve to…WarGreymon!"

"Gabumon Warp Digivolve to…MetalGarurumon!"

"War Greymon…MetalGarurumon…DNA Digivolve to…Omnimon!"

"Biyomon Warp Digivolve to…Hououmon!"

"Tentomon Warp Digivolve to…HerculesKabuterimon!"

"Palmon Warp Digivolve to…Rosemon!"

"Gomamon Warp Digivolve to…Vikemon!"

"Veemon Digivolve to…ExVeemon!"

"Wormmon Digivolve to…Stingmon!"

"ExVeemon…Stingmon…DNA Digivolve to…Paildramon!"

"Paildramon Mega Digivolve to…Imperialdramon!"

"Imperialdramon Mode Change to…Fighter Mode!"

"Hawkmon Warp Digivolve to…Ornismon!"

"Armadillomon Warp Digivolve to…Cannondramon!"

"Patamon Warp Digivolve to…Seraphimon!"

"Salamon Warp Digivolve to…Ophanimon!"

* * *

The light faded and the Digidestined stood in awe in the wake of their Mega-leveled Digimon. Taichi caught his sister as she swayed and he noted that Yamato did the same with Takeru. "We've done all we can," she said to him. "It's up to you now. So tired…" she mumbled as her eyes closed.

"Jyou!" Taichi yelled, but the elder Digidestined was already on his way over.

Jyou checked over the two quickly. "They're fine," he said. "They're just sleeping. I'm guessing using that much power all at once exhausted them."

Taichi nodded and laid Hikari gently on the ground, not knowing what else to do with her at the moment. All his instincts yelled for him to carry her to safety somewhere, but he knew what Hikari would want him to do. "Let's end this," he said to the rest of the Digidestined and the Digimon. "They gave us a chance. We can't waste it."

The Digimon seemed to agree as they leapt into action. Rosemon flew at Daemon, using her **Rose Spear** attack to using one of her vine whips like a rapier. Daemon grabbed the vine and threw her aside, but not before Ornismon fired a dazzlingly **Cosmic Ray** at him and hit him. He cried out and turned to face the flying menace, narrowly avoiding being hit by HerculesKabuterimon's **Mega Electro Shocker**. Cannondramon joined the fray by firing off his **Dynamo Cannon**, shooting destructive beams from the gunports on his body at the same time Hououmon used her **Starlight Explosion**, flapping her wings and calling down golden grains to strike Daemon. Daemon howled in pain and frustration, giving Vikemon the chance to hit him with his **Arctic Blizzard** attack, smashing Daemon with his hammer.

Taichi smiled. They were going to win, he could feel it. With this much power on their side, he didn't think there was any way they could possibly lose as Omnimon and Imperialdramon joined the fight.

"**Giga Crusher!**" Imperialdramon called out, shooting at Daemon with a giant cannon blast at the same time Omnimon cried, "**Supreme Cannon!**" striking the other Digimon with colossal energy balls.

"This can't be!" Daemon cried out. "**Algol's Flame!**" His attack threw back some of the Digimon, but none of them returned to their Rookie forms. They were all back up and throwing their attacks at Daemon once more.

Taichi turned his view away from the fight for a moment to look at Seraphimon and Ophanimon, who had not yet attacked. He wondered what they were waiting for as they floated above them, glowing just a bit.

As if they shared thoughts, Seraphimon and Ophanimon lifted their arms as one. "**Sephirote Crystal!**" Ophanimon called out as ten crystals shot from her hands and bombarded Daemon.

At the same time, Seraphimon yelled, "**Strike of the Seven Stars!**" Seven golden spheres shot down from the sky and struck Daemon at the same time as Ophanimon's attack.

Daemon, finally broken, lay on the ground, beaten from their attacks. Ophanimon lifted up her spear and Seraphimon wrapped his hand around it as well. Taichi pulled out his Digivice as it began to glow with light. He noticed that the rest of the Digidestined did the same. Light shot from the Digivices to the tip of the spear, which began to glow brightly. Pointing it at Daemon, Seraphimon and Ophanimon cried simultaneously, "**Eden's Javelin!**" Bright white energy shot from the javelin and hit Daemon, who cried out in pain. A moment later, he dissolved, gone utterly and completely.

A hush fell upon their group, which was broken just a few seconds later by Daisuke jumping up and down and whooping loudly. Their Digimon Dedigivolved and ran to their partners. Miyako began to swing Hawkmon around in circles as she chanted, "We did it! We did it!" Taichi rubbed Agumon's head, "You were great, Agumon."

"Thanks, Taichi," Agumon replied. "We couldn't have done it without Takeru and Hikari, though. They gave us power, just like Hikari did back with Machinedramon."

"Right," Taichi said. He walked over to his sister, who had a worried looking Gatomon standing next to her. He picked her up in his arms, where she stirred a little. "Hikari?"

"Is it over, Taichi?" she asked dreamily. "Did we win?"

"Yes, Hikari," Taichi assured her, smiling, so giddily happy to just have his sister back.

"Takeru?" she asked.

Taichi looked over at the kid, where Yamato had him sitting up. He looked semi-awake. "He's fine," Taichi said. "There's nothing to worry about anymore."

"That's good," Hikari said softly as she drifted back to sleep.


	16. Epilogue

The Digidestined managed to flee the scene before anyone, like the reporters or the army, could reach them to ask questions that they really didn't want to try and answer. They sent the Digimon home, except for Patamon and Gatomon, who wanted to stay with Takeru and Hikari, which they understood. They explained to their parents what had happened (they were all ecstatic to have their children back safe and mostly unharmed), and Takeru made a call to his mother once he felt up to it, once his father told him he had actually told Natsuko what he thought had happened to him.

It had taken some time, but finally everything settled down. Thanks to Yamato and Takeru's father, Hiroaki, they had managed to explain how Yamato had only been _mistaken_ when he thought Takeru and Hikari had been killed in a monster attack. Hiroaki told the press that his son and Hikari had only gotten trapped in a building and had managed to find their way out. When asked about the angel that his son flew away with, Hiroaki told them that his son had always been fascinated by angels and had thought it might have been a good monster, so he went to ask the angel for help, which the angel had agreed to.

Some people believed him. Some did not. But time is such an amazing thing. Soon there was some other breaking news story and another after that, and the world forgot once more the monster attacks that they had been plagued by once again. Eventually, people stopped asking, and the world moved on.

* * *

Yamato never thought he would find the image of his younger brother sleeping so fascinating. But he was rapidly coming to find out that believing someone you cared deeply about was dead even for less than a couple of hours had a dramatic effect on one's self once that person was found to be alive. Things had been hectic those first few days after the defeat of Daemon, but it hardly mattered to Yamato. He had Takeru back and Taichi had Hikari back. Everything else hardly mattered.

Takeru stirred in his sleep and lazily opened his eyes. When he spotted Yamato, he gave him a wry smile and sleepily asked, "You here again?"

Yamato returned his smile a little sheepishly. "I guess I'm just making sure you're still really here," he said.

Takeru sat up on his bed and wiped the sleep from his eyes. "For the fourth day in a row?" he asked, grinning teasing manner.

"I'm not as bad as Taichi," Yamato protested. "At least I let you out of the apartment."

Takeru laughed. "That's true," he said. "Hikari is getting pretty annoyed with him actually. I was going to go and rescue her today. She made it very clear what would happen if I didn't."

"And what is that?" Yamato asked curiously as Takeru dressed for the day.

"Oh, something about turning me over to Mimi and Miyako's special treatment," Takeru said. "I didn't even bother to ask what that was; just the thought of what it could be is bad enough."

* * *

"I am going out with Takeru today," Hikari said as nonchalantly as she could to Taichi over breakfast. Taichi opened his mouth, but Hikari cut him off, sensing what he was probably going to say. "No, you are not coming with me."

Taichi huffed. "But who knows what sort of trouble you could get into," he protested.

"Taichi," she said as patiently as she could. "It's over. I'm fine. Takeru's fine. Everyone's fine. Besides, Mom is starting to wonder if you're ever going back to your own apartment."

"I know," Taichi said. "I'm sorry, Hikari, but I just worry about you."

"I appreciate it and I know it's just because you care about me, but Takeru won't let anything bad happen to me," Hikari said. "You trust him, don't you?"

Taichi chuckled. "Yeah, I do," he said softly, surprising her a little. He sighed. "All right," he said, standing up. He started to gather his stuff from around the apartment. Just before he left, he stopped and placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "But you'll call me if anything happens, right?"

"I will," Hikari assured him. She stood up and hugged him. "You'll always be my big brother, Taichi. Don't ever forget that."

* * *

Sora sat down next to Yamato on the bench in the park and placed her hand on top of his as it rest on his leg. They sat like that for a few minutes, neither really needing words between them. She knew that Yamato enjoyed the peace that silence granted, and she had felt so inclined to do things for him since the aftermath of Daemon. She didn't have any siblings, so she couldn't really understand the pain he and Taichi must have gone through in those couple of hours that they thought their brother and sister were dead, but she had thought about what she might feel if it had been her mother or father, and knew she would have been devastated. It probably didn't help that Taichi and Yamato were extremely overprotective and attached to their siblings.

"Are you alright?" she asked softly.

Yamato looked down at her. "I'm fine," he said. She glared at him and he added, "Mostly. But you told me before right? It takes time, but I'll be okay. It's easier now that Takeru's okay, but I'll never forget how close we came to losing them. Or that I left him."

"Takeru doesn't blame you for that," Sora said. "You know that."

"I do," Yamato said. "I don't know if I can forgive myself, despite knowing it was meant to be or whatever."

Sora wrapped her arms around him. "I'll be here if you need me," she said.

"I know that too," he said softly, pulling her closer to him. They sat in silence again, content just to be together.

* * *

Hikari loved the snow. Takeru knew this for a fact, given how many times she had dragged him out into in the last few months (not even counting the few times she had convinced him to go with her to some of the colder regions of the Digital World in the months _before_ it had begun to snow). It had been over half a year since the battle with Daemon, and they were now deep in the heart of winter. They had lost the ability to use their powers in the real world after that battle, for which Takeru was somewhat grateful, since it would have been harder to deny everything if he accidentally thrown up a shield sometime or Hikari shot someone with a light beam. Takeru had hated lying to everyone, but he understood why it had been necessary.

Eventually people forgot, though Hikari had confided to him that her friends had actually been more interested in the fact that she and Takeru were dating than in their supposed involvement with monster attacks.

Takeru nervously fingered the item he held in his pocket. He had been playing to give this to Hikari for about a week now, but hadn't found the right time. Now as they just watched the sunset, he felt that the time had come. "Hikari?" he asked. She looked up at him and smiled expectantly. "I have something for you," he said. Takeru handed her the little box and Hikari opened it. Inside was a ring with an opal set into it. Hikari just stared at it, saying nothing, and Takeru could feel the nervousness and anxiety grow within him. "It's a promise ring," Takeru explained hastily. When still Hikari said nothing, he continued, realizing he was rambling, but somehow unable to stop himself. "I asked Mimi's advice and she told me that the opal was the stone of hope, and it has all the colors in the spectrum of light, so I agreed that it was kind of perfect." He watched tears gather in the corner of her eyes, so he added quickly, "If you don't like it, I can always—"

Takeru didn't finish his sentence as Hikari threw her arms around him. "Don't you _dare_ take it back," she said firmly. "I _love _it."

She let of him and tried to pull the ring out, but Takeru took it from her and said, "Here, allow me." He pulled the ring out and pulled off her right glove and slid the ring onto her right ring finger, fitting perfectly.

She looked up at him and smiled. "I guess this explains why Mimi asked my ring size out of the blue a few weeks ago," she said, laughing softly.

Takeru joined in her soft laughter. "Mimi never was very subtle," he remarked, remembering his apprehension of going to Mimi in the first place, wondering if she would ever be able to keep his surprise to herself.

Their laughter stopped as their eyes met. "A promise ring?" Hikari asked, leaning closer into him.

"Yeah," Takeru said, pulling her into another embrace. "A promise of forever."

"Sounds perfect," she said, smiling, which he readily returned.

* * *

_Final Notes: There is a companion story for this called "The Times Between" and a sequel called "Unending Light". You can find the links from my profile. Thanks for reading!_


End file.
